A friend to a music producer, Ebenezer Ayeni, who was shot by hoodlums in the Ojoo area of Oyo State, has said the deceased was attacked by suspected cultists, The PUNCH reports.
This was just as the Police Public Relations Officer in the state, Adewale Osifeso, told The PUNCH in a chat on Friday that the Command has begun investigation into the killing of Ayeni, who planned to wed his heartthrob, Bunmi, next Saturday, before his tragic death on Thursday.
The PUNCH had earlier reported that hoodlums shot 30-year-old Ayeni in his lower abdomen when they attacked his residence around 1am on Thursday.
According to Ayeni’s friend, the victim was rushed to the University College Hospital, Ibadan, and another private hospital but both medical centres refused to treat him without a police report.
Ayeni was said to have been rushed to a third hospital – Oyemesi Hospital – where he was attended to. However, he gave up the ghost hours later.
“Ebenezer was shot at his residence overnight and he was rushed to UCH but he wasn’t attended to because of police report. He was also rushed to J-Rapha hospital in Ibadan and they also refused to attend to him because of police report.
“The third hospital accepted him but he had lost so much blood by the time. His blood group was O+. He died before we could get a donor,” the close friend of the deceased told The PUNCH on Friday.
“We were planning his wedding next week and not his burial,” the grief-stricken friend added amid tears.
The source, who craved anonymity because of the ongoing police investigation, also said the hoodlums that attacked Ayeni were suspected cultists.
He said Ayeni, a final-year student of the Department of Music at The Polytechnic Ibadan, was a campus preacher whose sermons condemned the activities of cultists and ‘Yahoo boys’ — internet fraudsters — who doubled as ritualists.
“The attackers seemed to be cultists. Eben had always preached against cultists and Yahoo guys using young ladies for ritual purposes. The attackers didn’t attack any other apartment in the house but went straight to Eben’s apartment. Eben, his brother and their mother lived together in the apartment. Eben father died last year.
“The attackers went straight to Eben’s apartment, hacked him and his brother with cutlasses and machetes. When Eben and his brother tried to flee, they shot Eben in his stomach and left immediately. They didn’t take even his phone or any possession in the apartment. It looked like a targeted assassination,” the source said.
Continuing, the source added, “Eben has never been a cultist, he was not a cultist, he was a child of God. That night, his last (WhatsApp) post was around past 12 midnight. Before that post, he posted something about how Yahoo guys are using young ladies on campus, that young ladies should be very careful.
“He lived his life trying to bring young people and young girls from the kingdom of darkness. He was a leader at the campus fellowship. On Wednesday afternoon, he still preached and then they killed him in the night. Maybe he liberated one of the ladies from the cult guys, nobody knows.”
Friends of the deceased have since flooded the social media to mourn the young music producer while condemning the culture of requesting police report by hospitals before treating gunshot victims.
Meanwhile, the Oyo State Police Command has said investigation was on to apprehend the attackers.
In a chat with The PUNCH on Friday, the PPRO in the state, Adewale Osifeso, said, “At about 0100hrs on Thursday 10/06/2021, in response to a distress call from residents of Oguntula area, Ojoo on account of hoodlums suspected to be robbers breaching the peace and creating havoc within the axis.
“Upon receipt of this information, operatives from Ojoo Divisional Headquarters responded swiftly to the information and at the point of reaching the crime scene, one Ebenezer Ayeni ‘m’ had already been shot and rushed to Oyemesi Hospital (Also in tbe area) along with Olayemi Josiah ‘m’ who sustained cuts on head and neck.
“Investigation is ongoing to apprehend the suspects, please.”