A medical doctor, Morenikeji Oluwaniyi, has been strangled by a four-man gang in the Abule Egba area of Lagos State.
The 27-year-old was said to have converted his Toyota Corolla to a Uber ride to raise money for his sustenance.
According to the Punch, one of the hoodlums, identified only as Ahmed, requested to be conveyed to Ikeja around 10 pm on Sunday. He was joined by three other members of the gang.
They allowed the victim to drive all the way to the Underbridge area of Abule Egba, before attacking him from behind, strangling him and dispossessing him of his car.
They pushed his corpse down from the car and fled to African Shrine to celebrate their success.
The victim’s girlfriend, identified as Adeola Adesanwo, smelt a rat when she could not contact her boyfriend.
Incidentally, she was there when he accepted the request for a ride from Ahmed. She then placed a call to the company that Oluwaniyi got the car from, and the company tracked the car to a mechanic’s workshop on Oyadeyi Close, Abule Egba.
She said, “After tracking the car to that location, I noticed that the number plate of the car and the tyres had been removed. I went to report at the Meiran Police Station. Some policemen followed me to the scene and we picked up the mechanic and one of the culprits.
“At the station, they told us that the trip was a set-up, as they had planned to rob any Uber driver and it was unfortunate that it had to be him. They did not even give him an option; they strangled him from the back seat, pushed him out of the car and drove to the Afrika Shrine to celebrate.
“They took us to where the crime was committed at the Underbridge in Abule Egba and that was where we found his corpse. They could have asked for the car and he would have dropped it because he was a medical doctor who cherished life.”
Adesanwo explained that the victim was supposed to resume a new job a day after he was killed, adding that his family members had been contacted.
She said, “Oluwaniyi just got a medical job and was supposed to resume at 8 am on Monday; he accepted to do the trip so he could have extra cash at hand when he resumes.
“He left the house around 10.20 pm and by 12 midnight, his phone was switched off and he didn’t return home. When he was still not reachable, I called the company he got the car from and they had already implanted a tracker in the car. The company assisted in tracking the car to the address where it was found.”
The state Police Public Relations Officer, CSP Adekunle Ajisebutu, in a statement on Wednesday, said detectives attached to the Meiran Police Division arrested three suspects in connection with the crime.
The suspects are Rilwan Nasiru, 27; Sodiq Taiwo, 23 and Oladimeji, 20.
