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The meeting ended came to a close quite alright, but Afeez didn’t make it to his house at Igando, a Lagos suburb, as he was stabbed to death by one Ahmed Fatai.

The deceased had tried to save Ahmed’s mother, whose son (Ahmed), armed with knife, was pursuing her, as she kept screaming for help. But in an attempt to intervene he lost his own life in the process.
The deceased’s widows and children

When Daily Sun visited Moshalashi Street, where the incident occurred, people gathered round the body of the husband of three wives, who was in the pool of blood.

One of the eyewitnesses, who spoke to the reporter on the condition of anonymity, painted a graphic picture of how the meeting ended and Afeez getting ready to go home before he saw the armed Ahmed pursuing his mother...

“Ahmed’s mother was screaming for help, pleading with the son to spare her life. Afeez went to rescue her, but Ahmed stopped, stared at his face and stabbed him in the neck and chest,” he said.

Ahmed’s father was said to have hired a tricycle known in Lagos as Keke Marwa to rush him to the hospital, but it was too late as the Good Samaritan died few minutes later.

Afeez, a shoemaker, lived at Orile- Iganmu for many years, before he packed into his own house at Igando with his third wife, Taiye, who is said to be five months pregnant. His first widow, Nuratu, who disclosed that they had been married for the past 20 years, said they were friends, before they decided to get married.

She said: “He was my boyfriend, when he was in Boys Academy, Lagos. I’m his first wife. This is his second wife (pointing at a woman). Her name is Kudirat. The third wife is five months pregnant and she is living at Igando. “My husband was a successful shoemaker, and was popular man, I have two boys for him. “He once had a shop at Baale Street, Orile -Iganmu, before he moved to Lagos Island and later, Igando.

He told the third wife that he wanted to attend PDP ward meeting and to return home before 4.30. But he was killed at about 1pm.” The widow also narrated how her husband had earlier refrained himself from going out and restricted his movement to his compound since January. “He just decided to stay at home and prayed, till that fateful day he was murdered. He was a peaceful person, who disliked fighting.

“He could be angry but he never raised his hands on someone,” she revealed. His second widow with whom they had two children, a boy and a girl, said she was informed of his death on phone.

She described him as a good husband, who took care of his wives and children Ahmed’s sister, Modinat, also told Daily Sun how the family concealed the tragic incident from their father because of his failing health.

But the family could not hide the death of his son for too long as the 72-year-old man knew about his murder. Pa Moshood Agboola explained that the deceased was the only one taking care of him.

He lamented: “What am I living again for? The man, who killed my son has killed me, too. Who will take care of me? I’m now 72 years old, Afeez is my first son. The person, who killed him should know that it wasn’t only my son that he killed.

“He was a peace lover, he died, trying to make peace and to save life. His mother died long time ago and I gave him good home training. “I want the government and police to investigate the case properly, and, to bring the suspect to justice. This is what the family wants.” The traditional ruler of the area, Baale Jonathan Balogun, 80, also condemned the action of the suspect.

Meanwhile, residents of Orile-Iganmu said they suspected that Ahmed ran amok few minutes, after he came back from the mosque. According to them, he suffers from what they described as momentary insanity. They claimed it might have been responsible for his action. But the Baale reasoned: “If he suffered from insanity and was stopped from killing his mother, why did he kill another person?”

Aba, the economic nerve centre of Abia State, is almost a ghost of itself with schools and banks closed, as the siege on the city and its adjoining local governments by kidnappers, continue. There is growing uncertainty over the early release of the 15 school children abducted on Monday on their way to school..

The Abia state Commissioner of Police, Jonathan Johnson, however, said the closure of banks was a panic measure that did not reflect the real security situation in the city, adding that there were enough security personnel posted to each of the banks in the city.

Throughout the metropolis, as well as the Ogbor hill and Umungasi areas of Aba, there is a near absence of school buses that usually run through the streets to pick school children, and the few that were seen were without pupils, as their parents were afraid of sending them to school. Virtually every private school in the city has voluntarily closed.

There were also no march past rehearsals in the schools that were open as was the case in most of the schools last week, in preparation for our nations golden jubilee celebration.

One of the proprietors of the schools visited, who closed her school yesterday, said it was sad that the government has shown no commensurate interest in the safety of the kids the same way they did when the four journalists were kidnapped. She expressed wonder that the government could not buy tracking equipment for the police since they know that kidnapping in Aba has become endemic and sophisticated, rather than engaging in an amnesty that will not work, as the kidnappers are mere criminals who might not embrace the programme.

“This amnesty thing will not work. These are armed robbers who are into kidnapping because it is an easier way of picking their millions without sweat,” she said.

Fighting talk

Meanwhile, the heavy presence of soldiers was noticed in Aba on Thursday, especially along the Port Harcourt Express Road, an indication that the government might possibly go on the offensive against the hoodlums.

In a broadcast to the state, the governor, Theodore Orji, assured the parents of the kidnapped children that his administration, in conjunction with the federal government, was doing everything in their power to ensure that the young victims are released quickly and safely to rejoin their parents, teachers and friends.

He emphasised that his government is determined to stop this trend of kidnapping in Abia State. “Despite attempts to build a theory of intentions around the incidents of kidnapping in Abia State, our view now is that these kidnappers are not reacting to any realistic issues that are of utmost importance to their societies or to the state,” he said.

“These kidnappers are mere gold diggers, whose resolution and trade ambition is to make easy money and to secure the betterment of themselves alone, and so the government will not allow a few disgruntled elements in criminal garb to hold the entire state hostage. Government has been challenged, and we have decided to take the utmost measure available to implement the might and weight of government’s forces.”

Meanwhile, the police have raided the camps of some suspected kidnappers in Ukwa West area of the state. However, the kidnappers had escaped before the arrival of the police.

.The family of Kayode Ogunlusi, in Ayegunle-Ekiti in Ijero Local Government Area of Ekiti State, on Monday, lost their children after taking a cassava meal prepared by the family. Five other members of the family, who also ate the cassava meal, are now on admission at the emergency unit of the University of Ado-Ekiti Teaching Hospital, Ado-Ekiti. Mr. Ogunlusi, the father of the deceased children, who only regained consciousness after receiving medical attention, said the family ate the cassava meal on Sunday night as dinner.

He explained that few hours after taking the meal, two of the children started vomiting, while one became unconscious. The father, who disclosed that the food was prepared by his wife, said members of the family were later taken to a private hospital in the town for initial treatment by their neighbours..

BEIJING – A former medical worker allegedly stabbed to death eight young children and wounded five others Tuesday in a bloody rampage outside an elementary school in eastern China.

The attacker struck in the morning as students arrived for classes, mingling with parents at the school gates before suddenly pulling out his knife and slashing children, according to witnesses interviewed on local television.

In the aftermath, doctors treated small children and bodies lay covered in bloody sheets after the attack at Nanping City Experimental Elementary School in Fujian province. Police officers manned a cordon around the school. Some comforted distraught parents..

China has witnessed a series of school attacks in recent years, most blamed on people with personal grudges or suffering from mental illness, leading to calls for improved security.

The rampage in Nanping was finally stopped by passers-by and school security guards and the attacker was arrested, the reports said. The suspect was identified as Zheng Minsheng, 41.

Zheng worked as a senior nurse in a community clinic before resigning last June, the official Xinhua News Agency said, citing Huang Zhongping, spokesman for the Nanping city public security bureau.

Zheng was known to have a history of mental illness, said a man surnamed Wu in the Nanping city government office, who would not give his full name as is common among Chinese officials.

An unidentified former co-worker interviewed on Fujian television said Zheng was "difficult to get along with."

Eight children were killed, and five were being treated at a hospital, Wu said. Six died at the scene, which was smeared with blood from the sidewalk to the floor of an inner reception room.

The victims' ages were not immediately known, but Chinese elementary schools typically have students ages 6 to 12.

The school was closed and students were sent home for the day. Counseling will be provided for students when classes resume Wednesday, Xinhua said.

Recent school attacks include a July 2007 assault in which a mentally ill man wielding a wrench wounded 18 children and a teacher in a kindergarten in southern China before fleeing on a motorcycle and trying to stab himself to death.

In June the same year, a man slashed four students, wounding one seriously, in a high school in the southeastern city of Fuzhou, while elsewhere, police shot dead a suspected mentally ill man who threatened to blow up a school in southern China with dynamite.

China's worst such incident in March 2001 destroyed a schoolhouse and killed at least 42 people, most of them children. Officials blamed a mentally ill man who charged into the school in Jiangxi province with a bag full of dynamite. Parents disputed that, claiming their children had been forced to make fireworks at the school.