MATTHEW DIKE
Twenty-four-year-old, Matthew Ighoja, has proved to be an extremely lucky person. The courageous young man narrowly escaped death when an assassin shot at him pointblank, in the Ajegunle area of Lagos.
It was gathered that doctors extracted 16 pellets from his stomach and hands. Ighoja’s close shave with death happened when he was attacked by two hoodlums who pretended to have come to take passport pictures in the studio of his relation located at Barra Street, Ajegunle.
Narrating his ordeal, Ighoja said: “My brother traveled to Delta State. He told me to stay in his shop until he returned. I agreed. I’m also a photographer like him but I don’t have a studio. My brother traveled on Wednesday. On Sunday I was working in the studio when around 9pm a man came and inquired about the cost of passport picture. I told him N200. He left and promised to come back. I believe he left quickly because there were many people in the shop or he did not have the money to pay for the passport pictures. I was with one of our customers, Rita, who came to collect her pictures. So when the man came back, I thought he was ready to take the passport. I got up to set the camera, but suddenly the man ordered me to lie down. I smiled because I thought he was joking.
“I had not seen the gun he was holding. He barked again that I should lie down. It was then that I saw the gun. I asked what I had done to him. I was holding my handset. He didn’t tell me to surrender it. There were cameras and a laptop in the studio. He did not ask me to surrender any. I knew my life was in danger. I said please what have I done to you? He still insisted I should lie down. Rita was begging him, telling him not to shoot. Something told me that since I was between life and death, I should do something before the criminal would kill me and escape. I summoned courage and rushed at him. I attempted to grab the gun from him but it was too late. I couldn’t reach him before he fired at me at close range. I began to struggle with him in an attempt to disarm him, even as blood was gushing out of my body. We both fell and the gun fell on one side but he managed to collect the gun and escaped. His colleague seemed to have fled the scene at that moment.
“I was so shocked. I began to ask myself, was this not the man who said he wanted to snap passport picture? I had never come across the man before. Why should someone want to take my life? What offence did I commit? I did not quarrel with anybody.”
Ighoja narrated further: “Immediately I saw the gun, I remembered my creator. I remembered God. I said God please save me from this problem. Don’t allow me to die like this. Don’t allow me to die in the hands of this criminal. I couldn’t shout for people to hear. All I did was to struggle with him. Rita had the opportunity to run out of the studio and she did. She was calling on people to come and assist me so that the man could be apprehended. But all her pleadings to the people fell on deaf ears as they too were afraid to come close to the studio. They ran for their lives. Nobody came to rescue me. He escaped with the gun. I was rushed to Ajeromi Police Station where they quickly gave me police report and was rushed to a private hospital close to the police station. The doctors their extracted four bullets from my body. They removed four bullets from my right hand. I knew I was still having bullets inside me. A native doctor came and removed four bullets from my stomach, six bullets from my right hand, and one from my left hand. The bullet injuries were over 30. I want to say that it was God that saved my life. Not myself.”
They came for me, not you –Owner of the studio
His relation, Joel Aguwax, who is also the owner of the studio said that he suspected a man (name withheld), whom he reported to the police over assault. Aguwax told Sunday Sun that the person was arrested by the police on December 23, 2016 and detained till December 26, 2016 before he was released.
His words: “The assassins came to kill me and not my younger brother, Matthew, who is my aunt’s son. I don’t have any enemy except (name withheld), who threatened to deal with me. He lives on the same street with me. On December 23, 2016, he accused me and my co-tenants of gossiping about him. He said we were looking at him scornfully. I told him that if someone looks at him, he should call the person and ask the person why or look in the same way. We were arguing over it and suddenly he said he was going to fight me. I told him that I was not his mate. He should go and fight with his mate. While we were quarelling, he hit me in the eye and blood started gushing out. I reported the matter at the Ajeromi police station. He was arrested and detained that same day, December 23, 2016. He was granted bail on December 26, 2016. I thought the matter was over, but unknown to me he was plotting secretly evil against me. On January 18, this year, he was accompanied by two of his friends at Ojora Street, Ajegunle, and they started calling me, ‘Joel! Joel ! Photographer! ‘ I looked back and saw them and waited. He said I told the police that he is an armed robber and a cultist and that was why they detained him. I told him it was because he hit me and that was why I reported to the police. He said I made him spend the whole of the Christmas in the cell over a stolen generating set he did not know about.
“He threatened to deal with me. He said he would make me pay for what I had done to him. Three days later, January 21, 2018, I saw him in front of my shop with his two friends. I did not suspect anything. I just entered my shop. On January 24, I travelled to Ozoro, Delta State, where I come from. I was still in Ozoro when I received a telephone call from my neighbour that my brother was shot inside my studio. I couldn’t sleep that night. I was alarmed. I was praying for my brother to survive. I asked what really happened? Because they did not steal his handset or the laptop and cameras in the studio and they did not ask for anything, I knew it was the hand work of assassins. I drew the conclusion that nobody could do it except the person I suspected and had previously threatened to deal with me. My brother didn’t even know him. He might have invited his friends to commit the dastardly act or he came with them.”