A lady said to
be in her 50s, identified simply as Vivian, has been killed on Adewale Kuku
Street, Millennium Estate, Gbagada area of Lagos.
It was learnt
that the victim, whose relatives were unknown, suddenly appeared in the
community more than a year ago.
She was said
to be sleeping in an abandoned white truck parked in a bush on the estate when
she was killed on Monday. She had deep machete cuts in the head, neck and hand.
Residents
reported the matter to policemen at the Anthony division who removed the
corpse.
When Punch
visited the scene of the incident on Tuesday, it was observed that Vivian had
slept on the driver’s seat.
The assailant
had smashed the glass of one of the side doors, with bloodstains beside the
truck.
A resident,
who spoke on condition of anonymity, said she was hacked to death.
He said, “The
woman usually slept in the truck. But every morning, she would go to a house to
get a bucket of water to take her bath. She was a loner.
“I once
sighted an identity card with her, which indicated that she was a manager in a
big company before things took a turn for the worse for her.
“I have known
her for more than one year. She was intelligent and spoke good English. In
fact, she attended one of the Pentecostal churches on this estate.”
The resident
explained that Vivian, who hawked engine oil in jerrycans, was killed in the
wee hours of Monday.
A trader, who
asked not to be identified, said the victim might have been killed by those she
was dealing with in the trade or suspected r*pists.
She said, “She
supplied engine oil to some people around here. She was a middleman between the
suppliers and the receivers. It is possible that a deal went wrong and that was
why she was killed. It is also possible some people had noticed that she always
slept alone in the truck and had wanted to take advantage of her. She appeared
to me to be mentally ill.”
The trader
said Vivian sometime left the estate for an unknown place at intervals of three
weeks.
A welder on
the estate, alleged to be Vivian’s boyfriend, was arrested by the police on
Monday.
A source told
Punch that the police tricked the suspect to the scene after a resident told
the police that he was Vivian’s boyfriend.
He said, “When
the police came to remove the corpse, a woman told them she had a boyfriend.
The police then called the man and said they had a job for him. When he got
there, they arrested him. The man who owned the plot of land on which she died
was also invited.”
Security men
on the estate said the late Vivian always greeted them.
“She was
respectful and rarely talked. She would just greet and go her way. I used to
see her with jerrycans of oil. She was tall, dark and slim and should be about
50-year-old,” a security man said.
The state
Police Public Relations Officer, SP Dolapo Badmos, confirmed the incident. She
said the police were investigating and seeking the relatives of the slain
woman.
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