A woman, Mrs. Ifeoluwa Oluwaloseyitan (nee Alalade), has lost her right eye after she was allegedly attacked with a plank by her step-brother Mr. Olusegun Alalade, over their late father’s estate on Ladipo Oluwole Avenue, off Adeniyi Jones, Ikeja, Lagos.
Olusegun, who is a lawyer and his brother, Babasanjo Alalade, were said to have led some hoodlums to their father’s estate on Sunday, November 1, wielding cutlasses, among other weapons.
PUNCH Metro learnt that Ifeoluwa, her husband, Pastor Abraham Oluwaloseyitan; and her two elder brothers – Tunde and Kolawole – had been to the estate to inspect the painters working on one of the apartments therein.
PUNCH Metro gathered that Kolawole, who works in Abuja, had embarked on the renovation of the flat for him to be staying there whenever he came to Lagos.
Our correspondent learnt that they were about to leave the premises when the lawyer and his accomplices unleashed terror on them. Apart from the woman, the pastor was slashed in the head with a machete while Kolawole and others were also injured. But Tunde escaped unhurt.
It was learnt that a surgical operation was done on Ifeoluwa on Thursday to prevent the ‘ruptured’ eye from being infected.
One of the doctors treating her at the Lagos State University Hospital where she was admitted to confirmed to our correspondent shortly before the operation that the eye had become blind.
He said, “The trauma has ruptured the eye. The surgery we want to do is just to prevent infections. But medically, she can’t see with the eye.”
Narrating the incident to our correspondent, Ifeoluwa said Olusegun beat her severely and left her for dead.
She said, “It all started on Saturday when his younger brother, Babasanjo, used a machete to inflict wounds on a step-brother, Shola, in the palm inside our father’s estate. Babasanjo was arrested by the police from Man Centre Police Station but was released that same day. The lawyer was boasting before the policemen that he would deal with all of us.
“On Sunday, we went to the property to see the painters working on it. I was reading a magazine beside the gate when I saw the painters rushing out. I was approaching them to know what was wrong when Olusegun smashed a big plank on my forehead. He was hitting me, shouting ‘I will kill all of you’. He stopped when I pretended I was dead.”
Her husband, Pastor Abraham, said he wanted to rescue his wife when Babasanjo attacked him with a cutlass.
He said, “I moved her away from them (Olusegun and Babasanjo). Suddenly, they started clubbing me in the head. It was when two policemen came that they stopped beating me. Between Sunday evening and today (Thursday), I have spent over N200, 000 on her treatment alone. She is blind in one eye and her nose is affected too.”
Kolawole, one of Ifeoluwa’s step-brothers, accused the police of not handling the matter properly.
He said, “I am going to petition the Inspector-General of Police on this matter. Why would they release persons who attempted to kill? We are not happy with the way the matter is being handled by the police. It was because Babasanjo was released on Saturday that he was able to attack us on Sunday.”
Another brother, Tunde, said Olusegun had been ‘fraudulently’ administering their father’s property within and outside the state since he died in 2008, without giving them any share of the income.
But the lawyer denied attacking the victims. He said the apartment was under lock and key when Kolawole gained entry into it without his consent.
He said, “Tunde’s claims are not true. They were the ones that attacked me and I was injured in the head. I don’t know about the hoodlums and how Ifeoluwa got injured.
“They have been warned by the police to keep away from the estate. I just ejected a tenant from that place last month and locked the room. What was their mission on that premises on a Sunday? After all, they have sued me and my sibling.”
When contacted on the phone, Babasanjo simply told our correspondent that the squabble over the property “is already in court.”
One of the painters, Ayoola Henry, described the attack as ‘bloody’ saying he witnessed the incident from where he hid.
He said, “We were done with our work when Mr. Babasanjo, the lawyer and some people came with weapons and started attacking everybody. I ran to a corner but my partner was slightly injured in the leg. The lawyer was saying ‘I will kill everybody’. I am not sure whether it was the lawyer or Babasanjo that injured the woman (Ifeoluwa) because I was in shock.”
The Lagos State Police spokesperson, DSP Joe Offor, said he had yet to be briefed on the matter.
He said, “The officer in charge of the case is receiving treatment in a hospital. I will get back to you.”
Offor, however, had yet to do so as of press time.
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