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Never in the wildest imagination of 29-year-old Anthony Ogboru did he envisage to spend the just celebrated Christmas and New Year behind the counter, let alone to end up in one of the prisons in Lagos, for as long as the courts ruled!
As you read this piece, Ogboru, an indigene of Delta state is being detained at the dreaded State Criminal Investigation Department (SCID) cell in Yaba, over a case of alleged murder.
He allegedly stabbed one of his neighbours to death during a fight on December 22, 2014.
Crime Guard gathered that Ogboru, a driver with Worldwide Commercial Ventures located in Matori area of Lagos, engaged one Jonathan Ameh, a father of three, in a fight at their residence in Gowon Estate, Okonola in Egbeda.
Trouble, as gathered by Crime Guard, started for the duo after Ogboru’s sister rushed into their one-room apartment, with her wrapper tied on her chest, and informed that one of the tenants, Jonathan Ameh, dashed into the bathroom unannounced while she was taking her bath .
Irked by the tenant’s action, Ogboru was said to have gone to accost him (Ameh) in his apartment while members of his family were still awake. Time was 10pm.
An argument was said to have ensued, which degenerated into a fight, during which some curious tenants reportedly peeped from their curtains while the concerned ones came out to calm the warring parties.
Ogboru and Ameh were said to have been taken to their respective apartments by the good Samaritan tenants who also retired to their apartments, with the assumption that the dust had settled.
Barely had they settled down than another uproar was heard outside. By the time they rushed out, Ameh was reportedly found on the ground, in the pool of his blood, with a knife stuck in his heart region.
The perplexed tenants were said to have run in different directions in search of a vehicle with which to convey the dying father of three to the hospital. While that was going on, another group of onlookers were said to have held Ogboru and her sister, apparently to prevent them from escaping.
Policemen from Gowon Estate Division were immediately contacted, consequent upon which Ogboru was arrested and transferred to the SCID.
I killed him in a bid to defend myself
In this interview with Crime Guard, Ogboru who was full of remorse, shook his head intermittently in self pity, wishing the hand of the clock would be turned back to that fateful day, so as to right his wrong.
At a point, he burst into tears saying: “I never intended to kill him. I have never killed anyone in my life. It was a mistake… “, he paused . Continuing, he said: “After my sister reported the matter to me, I went straight to Jonathan, not with the intention to fight with him. I knocked on his door twice before he came out and angrily asked what I wanted . When I asked why he barged into the bathroom while my sister was bathing without even apologising to her, he responded by asking if that was why I came knocking that late . Thereafter, he banged the door in my face, saying I should leave if I had no better issue to discuss with him .
At that point, I shouted at the top of my voice, warning him to stay off my siblings and the next thing he did was to open the door and told me that I had no right to issue him any warning. He dared me to repeat the warning and when I did, he punched me in the face and we started fighting.
After the first round of fight, I was taken to a restaurant in front of my house. While there, Jonathan came from nowhere with an iron rake, which he landed on my head. He raised the rake again with the intention to hit me the second time . At that point, I took a knife I saw in the restaurant with the aim of defending myself. In the process, it pierced into Jonathan’s chest.
I never knew it was stuck in his chest because we still continued fighting. Even when I saw blood, I thought it was from my body”
Crime Guard learnt that one of the onlookers raised an alarm when he saw blood all over the place. By then, Ameh was becoming weak. At a point, he fell down, before it became glaring that he had been stabbed.
Expressing regrets over his action, Ogboru said : “I feel very bad about the incident that caused his death. I swear I did it in self defence . We have never been at loggerheads.
“Before the incident, my sister sold a phone to him for N3000. About a week later, he said the phone was bad and insisted that his money be refunded. I appealed to him to give me sometime to pay him. But at the end, he said I should forget about the money and the matter ended like that. So, you see, I have no reason for killing him. It was all a mistake.”
He has been charged for murder .
Spokesperson for the Lagos State Police Public Relations, Kenneth Nwosu, a Deputy Superintendent of Police ,DSP, said the suspect would soon be charged to court.
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