Charles Kelechi was a young man filled with dreams, desires and zest for life. But those yearnings, dreams, which he had been nursing for years will forever remain stillborn.
The life of Kelechi was untimely cut short by the bullets of some unknown men on the January 10, 2013 as he sat under a mango tree, right in front of his home with some of his friends, ruminating over life. The time was about 10:30pm.
According to his family members, Kelechi was a fast rising footballer and student of Yaba College of Technology, Lagos State. He was also into estate agency business.
A few minutes before his life was snuffed out, Kelechi had told a friend to buy a plate of rice and coke for him, never knowing it would turn out to be his last supper.
Just minutes after he finished his bowl of rice, some men in two tricycles were said to have stopped few metres away from where Kelechi sat with his friends under the mango tree.
And one of the strangers, for some unfathomable reason, had simply pumped bullets into the head of Kelechi. His head burst open, as his brain splattered, with blood running like a flowing stream.
Kelechi’s kid sister, Nneka Iruatu, said in a broken voice: “When I heard that Kelechi was dead, I couldn’t believe it. I fainted! It was just too much for me. How could Kelechi die? I spoke with him that day. He told me that he was planning to get married, so that he could have kids that would call him Daddy! Daddy! Why would anybody want to kill Kelechi? What did he do to them?”
Kelechi, 32, a final year student of YABATECH was sitting with his friends under the mango tree in front of their house at 37, Adedoniyi Street, Obele Oniwaya, Surulere, Lagos State enjoying the cool breeze outside after the normal occurrence of blackout by the Power Holding Company of Nigeria, before they were approached by some men in mufti who came in two tricycles.
According to Onyekachi Stanley, one of the friends who sat with Kelechi under the tree, they never knew the young men who approached them were on a deadly mission.
Stanley’s words: “There were four of us sitting right in front of the house that night, under the mango tree. This mango tree was where we used to gather to sit and relax. It created shade and we used to sit under it. My cousin was around that period. He came for a vacation. I decided to go to the mango tree that night, to relax with friends until I would start feeling sleepy.
“When we reached the tree, we saw Kelechi. He was with ID, another of our friends. We were just joking, when one brother walked passed, flashing torchlight at us. We all know him. He’s a Man-O-War. We talked about him for some time. He was a mature man, but not yet married, but he had just gotten a rather young girl pregnant. We were still discussing the issue, when I noticed a tricycle. They rode pass, then stopped.
“My cousin, Kelechi and ID were sitting. I was like backing them. I sat on a yellow chair. I was in front of my friends. The men stepped down, looked around and started walking towards us. Kelechi actually felt they were policemen.
“About four of them came down, but left others, moving towards us. They were in mufti. ID sat next to Kelechi. ID said yes, they were behaving like policemen. I noticed that one of them had a galas cut hair style. It struck me that policemen do not usually barb hair of such a style. Moreover, they were just too young!
“It crossed my mind, that they might not be police. I stood up, the other three behind me also stood up. I got up, already alert. I was already thinking of leaving the place. I guessed that was the edge I had over Kelechi, ID and my cousin.”
Onyekachi added that before one could say Jack Robinson, the men from the tricycle had unleashed terror on them.
He recollected: “Before we knew it, two of the men rushed over where Kelechi and ID were sitting. One of them grabbed Kelechi. Kelechi started shouting, ‘This is where I live! This is where I live!’ He probably still thought they were policemen. But I know police don’t usually harass or rough handle people when you’ve not committed any crime. One of them held ID and removed a pistol. He tried to cork it. But it didn’t work. I was shocked. It was like watching a movie. One of them suddenly rushed from the back, removed a gun from his shirt and opened fire.
“I initially thought that it was the gate of the house he shot. The shooting compelled me to start running. My cousin ran after me. I didn’t even know my cousin ran. People thought it was knock out because it was late and the area is usually very quite. I thought it was ID they shot. I saw them trying to shoot him. I told my friend who stopped me as I ran that ID had been shot.
“Then I heard that Kelechi was shot. That he was shot on the head. I was confused. I didn’t know what to do. When I asked where he was, they said he had been rushed to LUTH.”
For Mr. Eze Lazarus, the elder brother of the deceased, immediately Kelechi was shot, he screamed and called on him as his last hope of survival.
Eze, who was still confused and yet to get over the death of his brother, added that Kelechi held on to their mother’s apron after the old woman rushed outside from their apartment on hearing the gunshot.
Aside from calling for his elder brother to come to his rescue, Kelechi had also screamed for his mother, calling her to call his elder brother, Eze.
Eze said that although he had sighted the tricycles, he did not know of the havoc they had wrecked at him home.
“I was returning home when the tricycles passed me. They shot sporadically when they got to the junction of the street. I didn’t know they had shot my brother then,” narrated Eze. “Suddenly I saw people in front of my house, they were crying and shouting. My mother was among them. She had just returned from the village that day.
“Kelechi had spent that day playing with our mother, kissing her and wishing her happy New Year. Our mother told him to allow her have a rest that her body had been feeling out of sort. I left both of them playing.
“It was Kelechi who shared what our mother brought from the village to our neighbours. He was so happy that day, playing gospel songs. He even went out that day to play his usual football.
“When my mother heard the gun shots she rushed out. Kelechi was calling for her too. He shouted Mummy! Mummy! Mummy! Go and call Eze for me! When our mother rushed out, she saw and held him, shouting Eze where’re you? Eze where’re you? It was my mother that saw one of the bullets. It was red.”
Eze added that on their arrival at the Lagos University Teaching Hospital, Idi-Araba, it was as if they had gotten to a solution ground.
He said: “When I got home, I used my car to rush him to LUTH. When we got to LUTH, he was still alive. He was still clutching my hands. I told him not to worry, that he would not die. But when I looked at the way he was shot, I wondered if he would make it. He was shot twice on the head. I decided to leave everything in the hands of God.”
He added: “They started treatment. They wrote drugs for me to go and buy. I rushed to buy the drugs at the pharmacy downstairs. His breathing was getting faster and the doctors were doing everything they could, passing things through his nose and mouth.
“The doctor now called me that he didn’t think Kelechi would survive. He said that Kelechi was battling to stay alive, but that the bleeding was too much. He said that even if he survives it, he wouldn’t be normal because the bullets affected his brains. The doctor said I should be a man. He asked me to go and check on him. When I got there, Kelechi was already dead.
“The time then was around 2am (Friday morning). It was when they put cotton wool into his nostrils that I knew it was over.”
When asked if Kelechi’s death might have been as a result of some unknown cult groups, which he might belong to, his brother stated that Kelechi was too cool headed for that.
His words: “He plays defence and people call him Franco Barresi or Marcel Olympic. Those players are great players in Italy soccer. Some people call him Picasso, because he was very intelligent. On his candlelight night, all his school mates were here. I know he was not in cult! I can bet my life on it! Even all his friends said the same thing.”
Nneka said mournfully: “He was not a robber! He was not into anything bad. How could they just kill him, right in front of the house? I told my mother that it must be a set up. Kelechi was too gentle and kept much to himself. The bullet shattered his head and his brains gushed out.”
Fred Adoki, Kelechi’s childhood friend and room mate, said he was yet to wake up from the dream of not ever going to behold Kelechi’s smiling face again.
Adoki said: “I’ve been living with them since 2001. We sleep in the same room and became brothers sort of. He was so nice. I woke up last night and he wasn’t there. I miss him! We sleep in the same room and became brothers sort of.”
He vividly recounted the last minutes of Kelechi’s life at LUTH.
His said: “When I got to LUTH, he was still in the car, bleeding. He had not been admitted. The nurses were asking for police report. I had to kneel down to beg the nurses to admit him. I pointed out to them that the bleeding was too much before they agreed to admit him. I was the person that carried and placed him on the bed before they wheeled him inside. He was not a troublesome person. He didn’t tell me whether he was having problem with anybody.”
Although the case has been transferred to the State Criminal Investigation Department, Panti Yaba, Lagos State for investigation, but there are some mysteries still surrounding the shooting and killing of young Kelechi.
Eze, who rushed him to the hospital, revealed that on arrival at the hospital, there were many people who were admitted at the hospital, who were alleged to have been shot by some men in tricycle too.
His words: “When we got to LUTH that day, we heard that four people, who were shot that same day, were rushed to LUTH. We heard that some guys were shot at Ibindu, Marble and even at Ojuelegba. They said the shooters were also on tricycles. When we went to Randle to buy blood, I saw a guy there who asked me why my cloth was soaked with blood. I told him that someone shot my brother. He said his own brother was shot too.”
On the day the journalist went to Kelechi’s home to speak with his family and friends, the mango tree had been brutally chopped down. Many of them felt if not for the mango, the killers would not have been able to have tracked and identified him.
Eze said: “We heard that as they rode pass the mango tree, while Kelechi with his friends were sitting under it, one of the men said in Yoruba: ‘That’s the mango tree over there!’ They stopped, and four stepped down. There was even a woman inside one of the tricycles. They approached my brother’s direction.
“One of them brought out an Okah gun, he tried to shoot ID, but the gun didn’t shoot. The second guy, who was the person that had shot sporadically into the air when they stopped their tricycles, opened his shirt, brought out a gun and shot Kelechi twice on the head!”
When The Eagle Online contacted the Lagos State Police Command spokesperson, Ngozi Braide, about the case, she promised to make enquiries and revert. Braide never did until press time.
Trending
- OSUN: NANS seeks intervention from Governor Adeleke, threatens protest over fee hike, palliative
- Easter Celebration: IGP orders round-the-clock water-tight security at all public spaces
- Kogi poll: SDP witness contradicts self on alleged ‘affidavit forgery’ against Governor Ododo
- No BoT in Labour Party, spokesman dismisses takeover claims
- Nigerian writer urges preservation of literary heritage amid writer shortage
- Health professionals brainstorm in Abuja, seek drug free society
- CAF announce dates for Champions League, Confederation Cup Finals
- Tayo Ayinde withdraws suit against Gani Adams, restates commitment to peace