By Adenike Ayodele
Ikeja – An Ikeja Chief Magistrates’ Court on Tuesday struck out charges against one 35-year-old Ibrahim Fowotade alleged to belong to a secret cult.
Chief Magistrate O.O. Fajana struck out the charges following Fowotade’s alleged murder by cultists.
The deceased, who resided at No. 11, Akerele St., Oworonshoki, Lagos State, was arraigned in April on a two-count-charge of conspiracy and membership of an unlawful society known as Eiye confraternity.
He was arraigned on April 11.
The court granted him bail in the sum of N50,0000 with two sureties, and adjourned the case until Sept. 3 for substantive hearing.
The deceased’s father, 74-year-old Chief Amida Fowotade. had stood as surety for him.
The deceased was allegedly killed when two rival cult groups clashed at the Oworonshoki area of Lagos on Aug. 28.
The deceased was identified by his father as a ticket vendor for the National Union of Road Transport Workers.
“He left his home situated at No. 11 Akerele St. in Oworonshoki, to where he gave tickets to motorcyclists on that fateful day,” the deceased’s father told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in the court’s premises.
The deceased’s father said that he received a call from an eye witness who told him that his son had been killed.
“When I got to the scene of the incident, an eye witness told me that five men, suspected to belong to an unlawful society killed him.
“The eye witness told me that the unknown men attacked him while he was giving out tickets to motorcyclists, and murdered him.
“The men, as I was told, shot gunfire into air to scare people away, before my son was gruesomely murdered,” he told NAN.
The septuagenarian said that he was in court to inform the magistrate of the death of his son.
