This was
where some members of the Evans' gang watched over their victims and
made sure
to keep them hidden from unsuspecting neighbours. It is the same house Donatus Dunu escaped
from the night Evans and his gang members had planned to murder him.
Located on
the same street is a Foursquare Gospel Church and Celestial Church of Christ
which is a few meters from the camp of the kidnappers.
In an
interview with TheCable, a neighbour said:
“This is one
of my houses; I live in the other house I have around this place. My tenants
informed me on the day operatives of the State Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) came
to this area,” he said.
“I learnt it
was my house that the policemen first entered, thinking that was the place
where the people were operating from. They broke some windows and shot into the
air to scare people, but they were later directed to the place. That’s all I
can say.”
Findings
revealed that the owner of the fortress used by the dangerous group died three
years ago. One of the neighbours of the deceased woman told TheCable that the
tenant who rented the place after the demise of the landlady sublet it to
Evans’ team.
“That was
how these criminals brought trouble into an otherwise peaceful community. Only
God knows the number of people that they had tortured in the house,” a slim
young man who simply identified himself as pastor said.
Funsho
Akomolafe, the owner of a provision store located at the entrance of Asaye
street, also spoke to TheCable about the activities of two members of the gang
and how a captive: Donatus Dunu, a pharmacist and owner of Maydon
Pharmaceutical Company, Ilupeju, Lagos, helped the police to end the manhunt
for Evans.
“We know
only two occupants of that compound, and you won’t believe how they were
friendly with people in this community,” Akomolafe opened up as he signalled a
boy around to help him attend to one customer.
“I noticed
that they had interest in politics. On a number of occasions, they have engaged
me about the situation of the country. ‘People have been complaining about
hardship under this government’, ‘Light is bad in this our area’. ‘This our
area is very peaceful.’ Issues like these were what we discussed.
“One of them
has a bald head. He was always on short knickers and Tshirt. He buys bags of
sachet water from me, but there is a shop there where he buys fish. The owner
of the shop said the least amount of dry fish he has bought from her is N5000.
“He greets
me whenever he passes. Even if it’s 10 times that he walks past my shop, he
would greet me. I never knew I was relating with a crook. Sometimes he would
even tell me that he was going to get things on the next street. You won’t ever
believe he could do such a thing. He jokes a lot. He would show me the gallon
of petrol he bought from a filling station.
Akomolafe
also spoke of how he had the cause to visit the stronghold of Evans some three
months back.
“The water
in this area is very bad, but there are places where one can get good water.
Sometime in March, the owner of one of the buildings beside their camp asked me
to help her get someone that could dig a borehole. I was able to help her get a
professional and they negotiated. After the negotiation, the person handling
the project said he would need to inspect the house where the gang was
operating from before he could dig the borehole.
“So, on this
particular day, we went to the house and knocked for over 20 minutes before the
gate was opened. When the gate was opened, the person handling the project just
inspected the side of the house and said he could dig the borehole because
there was no soak away on that side. Immediately we left, they closed the gate
but we didn’t suspect anything.”
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