Robbers kill UNILAG student trying to recover stolen phone

Armed robbers have shot dead a 23-year-old student of the University of Lagos (UNILAG), identified simply as Adekunle, at Harvey Road in the Yaba area of Lagos State.

It was gathered that Adekunle was killed by the robbers on Saturday, June 3, after he tried to recover a phone stolen from his colleague, identified simply as Opeyemi, in a shuttle they both boarded from Yaba to the UNILAG campus.

Adekunle was said to have pursued the robber after Opeyemi raised an alarm that her phone (iPhone 7 plus) had been stolen in the shuttle.

It was learned that one of the hoodlums suspected to be working with the fleeing robber appeared from nowhere and shot the student dead.

An eyewitness, who declined to be named, on Monday, disclosed said the robber’s accomplice shot the UNILAG student in the head at about 9 p.m. on Saturday, adding that the undergraduate died on the spot.

“What happened was that someone shot the deceased at a close range on the left side of his head and he died on the spot. An ATM card found on him bears the name Adekunle.

“Later on, we gathered from a girl that gave her name as Opeyemi, who claimed to be a student of Business Administration, UNILAG, that she and the deceased, whom she knew as a student of UNILAG, boarded a shuttle bus from Yaba and were heading to UNILAG when she got dispossessed of her iPhone 7 Plus by a thief hanging at the back of the bus.

“She said the deceased attempted to help by pursuing the robber but in the process, another group of persons came out and one of them shot him at a close range on the left side of his head and he died on the spot,” the eyewitness told Punch.

It was further gathered that policemen, who later arrived at the scene of the incident, evacuated Adekunle’s corpse and deposited it at the morgue of the Mainland Hospital.

Confirming the incident, the Lagos State Police Public Relations Officer, SP Benjamin Hundeyin, said the command had commenced an investigation to arrest the robbers.

The Star

Segun Ojo