Ogundeji: Riddle of a Murder

Ogundeji

The circumstance surrounding the death of Paul Ogundeji, an Editorial Board member of ThisDay Newspaper remains a riddle, as there are conflicting reports on who actually killed him
By Chukwu Eke
Violent death has again visited ThisDay’s family; this time it laid its icy hands on a top editorial staffer of the newspaper, Paul Abayomi Ogundeji. Coming barely two years after the Chairman, Editorial Board of the paper, Godwin Agbroko was shot dead by unknown gunmen at Daleko, near Iyana Isolo, Lagos, Ogundeji, who would have been 40 by August 22, was found dead in his Kia sport utility vehicle by the police at Dopemu area of Lagos State.
However, the circumstances of the journalist’s death is still shrouded in mystery, as conflicting reports continue to pour in concerning what led to his death. A man who claimed to be an eye-witness to the encounter which led to Ogundeji's death alleged that he was shot by a gang of unidentified gunmen around 10 p.m on Sunday, August 17, 2008 in front of the Tower Aluminum Company on the Lagos-Abeokuta expressway.
According to him, the late journalist who was driving a Kia jeep marked BM 316 AKD, was linking the expressway from the Akowonjo Road and when he was blocked by his assailants who were driving a Nissan Murano jeep. After a short argument between Ogundeji and the gunmen, the witness said he heard a gunshot from the spot, which he alleged killed the journalist.
There is, however, another version of Ogundeji’s murder by a couple who claimed they were robbed at about the same time and the same place Ogundeji was killed. According to the couple’s account to the police at the Criminal Investigation Department (CID), Panti, Yaba, on Monday, August 18, they were robbeds and bundled into the boot of their sport utility vehicle as the robber operated.
Ogundeji, they said, ran into the robber’s operation and got killed after an argument. This version agrees with that of the police which said that Ogundeji was ambushed by robbers while on his way home at about 10.30 p.m on Sunday.
Yet another version was that which a national daily attributed to a family member at the home of the deceased. The family member, according to the daily, claimed that the police were trailing armed robbers who allegedly snatched a car on Liasu Road, Egbe in Alimosho Local Council Area and asked Ogundeji to stop. When he did not stop, they allegedly shot at him, leading to his death on the spot.
ThisDay in a petition to the police authorities dated August 18, 2008 and signed by its Managing Director, Eniola Bello, shared this view, saying: “We have strong reason to believe that policemen on night patrol may have a clue to the circumstances surrounding Ogundeji’s death … This reinforces our suspicions that there is more to Ogundeji’s death than what the public has been made to believe that he was killed by armed robbers.”
On Thursday, August 21, a group that goes by the name, The Committee of Friends, held a press conference at the International Press Centre, Ogba, at which they accused the police of being economical with the truth. They alleged that there was a police check-point near the scene of the killing on the fateful day, yet the police could not explain how the incident happened nor arrest any suspect involved in the killing of the journalist. They wondered why the police was in a hurry to conclude that it was an armed robbery attack when investigation had not been carried out. The group inferred that there was a cover-up by the police and cited previous killings which the police also blamed on armed robbery without any effort to dig into the circumstance of such killings.
The Source visited the Remilekun Bankole Street, Ikotun home of the Ogundejis. At the gate of the bungalow whose upper floor is still undergoing construction, the reporter was accosted by two young men who wanted to know his mission. When he introduced himself as a journalist, the heavily built iron gate grudgingly opened and he was ushered into the compound.
“If you want madam to talk to you about this thing, you will not succeed, because she is not talking to anybody,” one of the men said, as he pointed to a door leading to the family’s sitting room.
The sparsely furnished room was indeed a house of sorrow. Six dejected faces of women sitting on upholstery chairs stared unblinkingly at the reporter as he entered. A younger woman came out of an inner room and asked who he was and what he wanted. He introduced himself as a journalist and hurriedly added that he did not come to do any interview, but to commiserate with the wife of the deceased.
“Who are you to the family?,” she asked further. “I met the deceased at the defunct Comet newspaper, and he was nice to me” the reporter answered.
“I asked because if you are using journalistic trick to get anything from her or anybody here, you will be disappointed,” the same lady warned before waving the reporter to a vacant seat and pointing at a pretty woman in the middle of the other women as Ogundeji’s wife.
After saying some comforting words to her and assuring her that God must surely bring the murderers to book, there was few minutes silence. But since the reporter did not leave office to come and observe silence but to make the woman talk, he went to work. “Madam, I learnt you are not talking to the press. How come some comments are attributed to you and members of your family?,” The Source asked. Her eyes dilated and stared at the reporter. “What did they write? Which paper?,” she asked, impatient for an answer.
“They wrote how you were telephoned by the police to come to their station to bail your husband who the police said was in their cell and how you reached there and was told he was killed by armed robbers. They also wrote that your family was accusing the police of the murder of your husband,” the reporter answered her.
When she disowned the report and said no member of the family had granted any interview to anybody, The Source told her it was the reason why she should talk to correct the impression people have from the false reports. It worked, as she began to tell The Source how her husband left home at about 4 p.m on that fateful Sunday, August 17. She said he did not tell her where he was going. But when by 12 a.m he had not returned, she began to entertain fears, because he had not slept outside before. Then she called his number later and a strange voice answered and told her her husband was involved in a brawl and was locked up in the police cell at Idimu police station. The following day by 6 a.m, she said, she went to the police station with her brother in-law who was staying with them. According to her, she thought it was just one of the antics of the police to extort money.
On reaching there, however, she saw her husband’s shattered jeep and real fear gripped her. Then she was invited to the DPO’s office, where she was told by the DPO that her husband was shot by armed robbers at Dopemu. She said the DPO gave her a blue cellophane bag containing her husband's cell phone, wallet and other things they might have found in his pigeon hole, which she showed to the reporter.
Asked if she suspected hired assassins for her husband’s death, she said it was improbable that her husband was killed by assassins, because her husband had no problem with anybody. He was gentle and honest. Nor was she suspecting the police. “Only God knows the murderer, and only him would bring them to book,” she said.
A graduate of History from the University of Ibadan, Ogundeji had worked with The Guardian as a reporter, as Features Editor with the Punch and Editor of the defunct Comet on Suday before joining ThisDay. He was also a former aide to Femi Pedro, former deputy governor of Lagos State. He is survived by his wife and two children.