Ibadan Trans Wonderland Killing: Eyewitnesses, guard accounts contradict Taiwo Adeleke’s narrative

FURTHER investigation jointly conducted by Mega Icon Magazine and National Insight News revealed differences on how Kehinde Adeleke was shot dead at Pete’s Bar & Lounge housed by Trans Wonderland, Ibadan, Oyo State.

Witnesses to the unfortunate incident have contradicted the allegation of murder leveled against the owner of Pete’s Bar & Lounge, Mr. Seyi Olusa popularly addressed as ‘ Father Luski’ by the twin brother of the deceased, Taiwo Adeleke.

The two witnesses and a security guard whom were at the scene of the incident that led to the demise and eventual closure of the bar by the Oyo state government also gave differing accounts of what transpired.

The security guard who was at the car park gave a comprehensive account of the investigation into the death of Kehinde Adeleke on Friday, including witnesses reports that contradicted the earlier claim, absolving Mr Seyi of killing the 30 year old young man last week Monday, February 26th, 2018.

Mr Taiwo Adeleke had earlier alleged that the owner of the bar, Mr Seyi collected a riffle hanged on the shoulder from one of his friends, an officer attached to the security outfit codenamed ‘Operation Burst’ launched by the Oyo state government to curb criminal activities in the state and shot his twin brother.

Some media also reported that it was accidental discharge from an army officer in the team of operation burst that hit him on the neck and unfortunately the victim could not survive after massive blood loss.

It was reliably gathered that the deceased was buried on Thursday,  March 1st,  2018, while Mr Seyi who was alleged of murder has been detained by the police for further interrogation.

One of the Security guards working with Pete’s Bar & Lounge who was at the car park and witnessed the incident, Mr. Alade Samuel narrated: “ I was  at the car park when the deceased younger brother simply identified  as Damola engaged another customer in a fight over parking lot. Damola who had earlier parked his car at a particular spot at the parking lot left  the premises to get something outside Trans Wonderland premises and while driving in, another customer was already  parking his car  at the same spot where he had earlier parked. He ordered the guy to leave his space but being a public place, the guy declined and ignored him. Damola, then left his car to block that guy. They argued and later  engaged in physical combat.

“It was their noises that attracted our boss, Mr Seyi and some other people whom were around came out to settle the dispute, but Damola was adamant and not yielding. He (Damola) insisted on beating the guy, while that was going on; the Operation Burst team came in and many people including, Mr Seyi and his friends returned to their tables”.

“ The soldier man asked both guys fighting to kneel down but Damola was adamant and the soldier hit him on the head with the cane in his hand and he went down immediately, pretending as if he had died but while going down he asked one of the people around to help call his brothers. On hearing their voices, he stood up and started shouting, bragging and pointing at the soldiers. The twin brother of the deceased, Taiwo and Damola were trying to take the gun from the soldier, it was in the process of dragging the gun that the man started shooting  into the air to disperse them but the guys were not deterred , they have attempted that before, in fact he once slapped a military man, it was my boss (Mr Seyi) and his friends that settled the matter that day “

“It was one of the stray bullets that  hitted Kehinde and he fell down. Damola and his friends went on rampage, they were trying to  cause more trouble leaving their brother lying in a pool of his own blood. Later they took him and rush him out to where I don’t know, but few minutes later  more than 20 guys resurfaced with  broken bottles  and other unidentified weapons, I also ran for cover till they left the place”, Alade submitted.

In a related development, other witnesses who claimed to be regular customers at  Pete’s Bar & Lounge punctured the allegation raised against Mr Seyi, the owner of the bar, describing it as baseless, lies and a calculated attempt to implicate him.

One of the witnesses, a friend to Mr Seyi who had some cuts on his fore head, hands and legs recounted how he narrowly escaped death from the guys who abducted him.

He said : ” I was at the scene earlier but when we saw that the security people were on ground, everybody went back to where we were seated earlier including Mr. Seyi. About 10 – 12 minutes later, we started hearing continuous gunshots, accompanied by a loud voice, ‘leave me alone’. By the time the gun shots went down, we realized what was going on, these boys were almost 50, they came out attacking almost everybody, I personally was attacked. We were trying to find out what led to that before one of the guys now came and said somebody was hit by the bullet and the boys were shouting that we are the one that called Operation Burst, the whole thing was other way round.

The witness who confided in our reporters narrated further: “Along the line, I personally was abducted wanted to be taken away by these boys, he hit me with a bottle on my head, I was beaten up mercilessly, a lot of things were destroyed; along the line I was fortunate I escaped. My friends now have to take me to the clinic. I was at the clinic overnight and when I came back in the morning (Tuesday), the next thing I saw on the internet was that the owner of the bar took a gun from the soldier and shot Kehinde (deceased). I was wondering, how is that possible?”.

“Very unfortunate that Kehinde is dead, a very painful thing because he was a very nice guy, he is the one that usually curtail the excesses of his twin brother and other people around him , he is a peace loving guy”, he added.

Taiwo Adeleke’s Story:

Taiwo Adeleke, the deceased twin brother who took to his Facebook page on Wednesday, February 28th, 2018 at exactly 4:40Pm with the Facebook Profile name “Adeleke Taiwo Ebony wrote :

When will the federal government and the house make laws that will restrict the Military and uniform men from carrying ammunition at civil gatherings. When will our law enforcement agencies stop killing those they are meant to protect?

On Monday 26th of February at exactly 6:45pm, myself( Adeleke Taiwo) Kehinde and some of our friends got to trans to chill after the day’s work. That is how we have been going there since 2016 without causing any trouble in the vicinity. Before now, we have always been seeing men of the operation Burst with Seyi (Fathers Luski) the owner of the Bar. They drink, chat and smoke together on a daily basis. He always use them as a tool of oppression over anyone who question him. At exactly 7:20pm, Kehinde Adeleke, a young, intelligent and friendly young man who just clocked 30 years last month was shot with a gun of one of the men of the operation Burst constituted by the Abiola Ajimobi led government in Oyo state at the Trans Amusement Park around Agbowo.

It was gathered that, Kehinde who was killed by Father Luski and men of the operation burst sent his immediate younger brother Damola an errand to get him food. On Damola’s return, some guys were arguing with him for parking space and all of a sudden the guy slapped Damola Adeleke. Someone went to call Kehinde Adeleke that his younger brother Damola is being beaten up by some guys. On getting there, Kehinde was trying to inquire what transpired between the duo.

However, during the conversation, Seyi( Father Luski) the owner of the bar appeared with some men of the Operation Burst who even without any question from those involved in an argument asked father Luski what was wrong then father Luski pointed to Damola Adeleke as the trouble maker. Immediately he said that, one of the men of the operation Burst smashed a big stick on Damola’s head who fainted immediately. People rushed to get water and pour it on him. As that was going on, Kehinde was telling Father Luski that he has not done well that he supposed to settle this and not put blame on one person. The argument went on for almost 5minutes before Father Luski became angry and collected riffle hanged on the shoulder from one of his friends (Men of the Operation Burst) then shot Kehinde in the neck which I was there with the owner of the Bar (seyi AKA father luski ), I was the one hold and dragged the owner of the bar (seyi) in to my car that he had killed my immediately twin brother which he could not escaped. When people heard the gun shot, everywhere was scattered . The operation burst now started spraying gun shots around the premises.

The remaining men of the operation burst ran away but when they got to know that The second in command and the owner of the bar that shot kehinde Adeleke which is called Father Luski has been apprehended by Kehinde’s brothers and friends, the operation burst locked the Trans gate and prevented them from taking Kehinde to the hospital for over 30min.

Tope was the one driving the car where Kehinde was kept. Some men of the operation burst pointed gun to his head that he should open the door for The apprehended culprit to escape.

Immediately when we left there, we took Kehinde Adeleke to UCH, he was rejected, we immediately took him to Eleyele police Hospital at the police headquarters, the Doctors there said he was still alive but they don’t have necessary tools to carry out any surgery on him that we should take him to Molly Hospital at IDI APE. When we discovered that these hospitals are not attending to us, we called our friend and Brother, Babatunde Badmus who then help us took him to Molly Hospital from Eleyele. On getting to Molly hospital, we were told by the doctor who attended to us that they couldn’t feel any pulse again. Then we went to UCH to reaffirm that. On getting to UCH, we saw three patrol vans of operation burst fully loaded with men and ammunition. They blocked the normal entrance then we took the exit so that we can get to the emergency ward. While we were going to Molly hospital, two of our friends who could not follow the car we were carrying took bike and waited for us at the emergency gate of UCH. It was later realized that men of the operation burst arrested these two guys, tortured them and asked them to call us to come out that they want to arrest all of us.( Those guys were not handed over to the police for questioning but we’re brutally tortured overnight by the operation burst in their office around NTA IBADAN. They failed to arrest us because of our number and our peaceful resistance coordinated by Babatunde Badmus who helped us to drive him to all the hospitals. Immediately when we entered the emergency, the colonel in charge of the Operation Burst commanded his men to take positions as if they want to wage war against us. They started corking their guns and pointing it at us. Then Babatunde Badmus went to meet the leader of the team and have a discussion with him on why should his men bring ammunition to the hospital where civilians are being treated? But he had no tangible answer. At the end, we had some videos of the Operation Burst fully armed inside the hospital and how they were ready to kill more people. We all went there without any ammunition. We were only sad because our brother was killed yet, we were being victimized by the law enforcement agencies.

We later took him to the Mortuary with some men of Sango Police station where his body was kept.

However, Mega Icon Magazine learnt that, both the complainant and the respondent had earlier presented their stories before the police and investigation continues.