Seun on his hospital bed What transpired between them that Monday night remains in the realm of conjecture because of their different accounts.
The victim, Dada Seun, claims that his left wrist was severed by Kehinde Omo Ajenifuja, who is suspected to be mentally deranged. But Ajenifuja denied the allegation.
It all happened last Monday at Idolofin quarters, Ado-Ekiti, the Ekiti State capital.
Seun, 32, a night guard with the Nigerian Legion office in Ado-Ekiti, also sells food items in the daytime at his shop located in Idolofin. He retires to his security duty at night.
It was, therefore, not the right time for him to be at the security post by 7pm on Monday when the incident happened.
He had earlier in the day gone to the market to restock his shop, promising customers to make available their preferred items by a particular time of the day. He had returned from the Oja Oba Market and was relaxing. He had not slept after returning from the night duty. Seun was inside his shop that Monday evening when the ‘customer’ that was to inflict the eternal scar came calling. That ‘customer’ was Kehinde Omo Ajenifuja, a bricklayer who also doubles as a herbalist.
Some residents say carrying a sack containing a cutlass has become part of 40-year-old Kehinde an indigene of Ido-Ekiti, who lives at Oriapata in the the state capital. But the purpose for which he usually carries the sack about was unknown to residents, until that fateful Monday.
Seun recalled that he declined selling Gari to him because Kehinde was owing him N50, which he(Kehinde) would not even mention before making a new order on credit. His refusal to ‘sell’ to Kehinde degenerated into an argument which ended in Kehinde bringing out the cutlass to slash off Seun’s wrist.
He said: “On Monday, the man (Kehinde) came to my shop, asking me to sell Gari to him but because he was owing me N50, I declined his request for another ‘book me down’. He was carrying a sack which I had always seen with him. But, I did not know, until yesterday, the sack contained a cutlass.
“I insisted I would not sell the Gari to him on credit. That was when he started abusing me and threatening to deal with me with the cutlass. At a point during the hot exchange, I ran away from my shop but later I returned to him, saying “this is my shop. I told him he could not harm me. Suddenly, he brought out the cutlass and aimed at my head. As I struggled with him in an effort to protect my head, the cutlass severed my left wrist.’’
Seun, whose condition had been stabilised by doctors at the University Teaching Hospital (UTH), Ado-Ekiti, where he was rushed to after the incident, opened a black polythene bag, exposing the gory content: his chopped wrist.
He went on: “Immediately he dealt the blow and I started rolling on the ground, Kehinde disappeared from the scene. I don’t know what befell him afterwards, until the following day (Tuesday morning) when the nurses informed me that the man who inflicted the injury on me had been brought to the ward just before me’’.
Kehinde was not coherent in his account of the encounter. He also declined to accept that he was carrying a bag in which he had always kept a cutlass.
Below are the excerpts of this reporter’s encounter with him.
What is your name?
My name is Kehinde Omo Ajenifuja Eleyeloogun
What do you do?
I am a bricklayer and I practise traditional medical healing. I live at Oriapata here. I am from Ido-Ekiti. When you get to Osekita Grammar School,that is my dad. You will also get to Ifaki and you will have the Ifaki Market on your right. I had a wife before but she left me because I don’t have money again. My child is still with her. I want him to grow up before I claim him. I am just about 46 years old.
Why did you cut Seun’s hand ?
This boy (Seun) has been known to me for quite some time. He would always insist I buy cigarettes from him. But I normally told him that it is not good to buy cigarette. I did not cut my manhood. He would say I had cut my manhood and I would reply him I did not cut my manhood. Oga, you too can see (trying to open his trousers) can you see Oga, have I cut my manhood? He would then say I should buy cigarette from him.
Kehinde was consistent in his denial that he did not know who chopped off Seun’s wrist.
The police took Kehinde to the hospital after rescuing him from some enraged bystanders, who were moved by his actions.
The police were said to have identified Kehinde as a mentally imbalanced man in the entire community in the Okesha area, where he prowled, scarvenged through the rubbles and begged for money.
Seun is still in the hospital. Although, his condition has stabilised, courtesy of the principle of ‘safe his life and stabilise him first’ of the hospital. Seun will need more than the basic intervention as he has to undergo another surgery to dress the stump of his left arm.
About N35,000 will be needed.
Since Kehinde was admitted into the hospital, no one has come to see him.
Source : The Nation
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