…That left 16 pellets in victim’s body
MATTHEW DIKE
Matthew Igboja, who survived an assassination attempt by the whiskers, has heaved a sigh of relief, after the Lagos State Police Command arrested the person (name withheld), who was alleged to have masterminded the crime.
When the incident happened, the hoodlums shot him at close range as he struggled with one of the assassins for the gun, in the photo studio of his brother located in Barra Street in Ajegunle area of Lagos State. After firing the shot, and the victim fell down, the hoodlums escaped, believing that he was dead.
Sunday Sun gathered that the Lagos State Commissioner of Police, Mr Edgal Imohimi introduced the strategy used in fishing out the suspect, who was said to have relocated from Agungun Street in Ajegunle to faraway Okun-Afon, a new settlement in the Badagry axis of Lagos State, where he was arrested, recently.
The operation was led by the Divisional Police Officer (DPO) of Ajeromi Police Station, CSP Sunday Digha, and it yielded fruitful result, when the investigation led them from Agungun Street, where the suspect lived to Okun-Afon.
A top police officer attached to the Ajeromi Police Station disclosed that immediately the suspect was arrested, CSP Digha transferred the case to the Federal Special Anti-Robbery Squad (FSARS), Ikeja, attached to the Lagos State Police Command.
The cookie began to crumble for the suspect after the Sunday Sun published the story of the failed assassination attempt in the February 11, 2018 edition of the paper, with the headline, “Miraculous escape: Man survives assassination attempt, 16 pellets extracted from his body.”
The victim, Matthew Ighoja was shot on January 28, 2018, by two suspected assassins who came to the studio pretending to be customers, but unknown to the photographer, they were wolves in sheep’s skin.
Ighoja who is fast recuperating from the bullet wounds said he was happy that the police had arrested the prime suspect, adding that he is waiting for the outcome of the police investigation to unravel the mystery because he never offended anybody or fought with anybody.
However, his relative and owner of the studio, Joel Aguwax, who strongly believes that the assassins came after him and not his brother, said: “The Divisional Police Officer (DPO) in charge of Ajeromi Police Station led a team of policemen to my studio that day Sunday Sun published the story of the incident and got more details from me about the man who threatened to deal with me. I led them to his house and the police invited two of his brothers for a chat. His brothers gave information about where and when to apprehend the suspect. The police had to travel as far as Okun-Afon to arrest the suspect. I went to Okun-Afon with them and we returned very late in the night. The DPO really tried. The police really worked hard because the distance is far.”
Continuing he said: “You know in this kind of case, the suspect will not agree that he masterminded or even carried out the shooting because my brother had never set his eyes on him. He denied any involvement in the criminal act. He said that he made an empty threat to me. He also said that the day he threatened me with his friends, they were all drunk. So they acted under the influence of alcohol. When the police asked him what he was doing with his two friends opposite my studio in the week the shooting incident occurred, he said he went to give his shoes to a cobbler to repair. Well, the police are investigating.”
Recalling how the incident occurred, victim Ighoja said one of the hoodlums inquired how much it would cost to have his passport picture taken, and he told him, “Just N200,” and they left the studio.
Ighoja, 24, said when they reappeared about 20 minutes later, he was hoping to take the passport picture because he never had any premonition that danger was lurking behind until one of the young men brought out a gun.
He said it was when the man ordered him to lie down that a chill ran up his spine and he knew that the claws of death had come menacingly, and could consume him any second from that moment.
The victim said he wanted to disarm the man with the gun but it was too late as the man had pulled the trigger and the shot hit me.
He struggled with the man that shot him, hoping that help would come his way from neighbours and passersby so that the suspect would be apprehended, but instead of coming to his aid, the people ran for their lives.