Akinrinlade Ayodeji, a resident of Ikorodu, Lagos State, has narrated how he was almost killed by a mob in his area after he was mistaken for a Badoo cultist.
In the write-up, titled ‘Ikorodu’s Badoo brouhaha: My story’, Ayodeji said he had gone to fetch water at a nearby tank and on his way home, he was accosted by a man who thought he was carrying condemned engine oil – an item for which Badoo is notorious. Before he could explain himself, a mob had formed and started pummeling him.
“I got back from work at around 5:21pm; after putting off my wears, I decided to take a nap on my bed. Suddenly i felt into a deep sleep only to wake up at about 7:39pm. Immediately I became conscious to the fact that I didn’t have water in my gallon,” he said.
“Then I quickly decided to go get some water at a nearby tank. I was with my hands-free on when I heard ‘hey hey! what are you coming here to do at this time’? I replied, ‘Sorry sir, I am actually here to fetch some water.
“Before I could finished explaining myself, I saw a very furious man and decided to just turn back jejely to my house. Before i could take three steps forward, I just felt a big and severe bang on my face through the back.
“At this point I was lost, wondering if the world was ending that day. Immediately, I saw people gather, asking in Yoruba, ki lo de? Ki lo sele (what happened? Whats going on?)”
“To cut the long story short, people testified that they know me, even asking the said man, don’t you know him? They all apologized after several slaps and molestation, initially.
“Then i just jejely carried my gallon that someone else had helped filled, obviously out of pity, then walked towards my house, entered my room, put off my already tattered cloth, sat down and started imagining what just happened, hoping it was just a dream. Behold! it wasn’t; it was REAL!”
Ayodeji said that some elders of the community, including the man who wrongly accused him, later came to his house to further apologise.
“They all said they were sorry for the ugly incident, with the man that punished me particularly holding me tight just to show his level of sorry. I almost shed tears at that point, but had to be a man,” he said
Ayodeji said though he bore no grudges about what happened to him, he however wants residents of Ikorodu to “take things easy” because “two wrongs can never make a right”.
He recalled that “that was how one of our friends too was lynched to death last Sunday at Odongunyan but glory be to God mine was not beyond control”.
He must have been referring to the lynching of Paul Chinedu, who many people later identified as an upcoming comedian and MC.
Some reports have it that Chinedu, whose stage name was ‘MC Think Twice’, was returning from an event when his car broke down around Ikorodu area by past 2 am. He called his friend who arrived with an SUV to help tow the car, but they were accosted by men of the local vigilante group.
According to the reports, the security men refused to allow them explain themselves; and when a stone was found in the trunk of one of the cars, the mob needed no other evidence and beat them to death, setting their bodies alight.