The wife of a bus conductor, Toheeb Olayiwola, who was allegedly killed by an official of the Nigeria Customs Service, fainted on hearing of her husband’s death.
The Customs official was alleged to have shot and killed Olayiwola at Abule Egba, two days after his wife delivered a baby through Caesarean Section.
Eyewitnesses claimed that the officers opened fire on the bus driver and Olayiwola because they refused to part with N2,000 bribe.
Speaking on Thursday, Toheeb’s elder brother, Salami, said it was not easy for their family members to inform the deceased’s young widow about her husband’s sudden death
Salami said: “We had no option than to withhold the news of her husband’s death from her until we no longer could.
“We paid for the hospital bills to ensure she and the baby were quickly discharged from the hospital.
“She was discharged yesterday.
“When we eventually told her, she collapsed and lost consciousness.
“We thank God that the lady didn’t die after she was informed of her husband death, because they love each other too much.
“She will be staying with Toheeb’s mother.
“We want to appeal to Lagos State government to come to aid of the young widow and her baby because things are very tough for them.”
Salami further complained that the family members had not been able to bury Olayiwola as Lagos State Task Force was allegedly demanding N250,000 before the corpse could be released to them.
Salami explained that after the shooting and death of Olayiwola, officials of the Lagos Task Force came to pick the corpse.
Salami said: “The Oke-Odo Divisional Police Officer, Mr. Ben Adeola, advised us to go and get an affidavit before we could collect his corpse for burial.
“When we got the affidavit and went back to him, he said that the case was no with his station.
“We need to bury him.
“We are Muslims.
“We don’t keep dead bodies for long.
“On getting to Lagos State Task Force, they demanded for N250,000.
“We don’t have such an amount of money.”
The Nigeria Customs Service, Federal Operations Unit Zone A Public Relations Officer, Jerry Attah, didn’t pick his calls and also didn’t reply text messages to his phone.
The Public Relations Officer of Lagos State Task Force, Adebayo Aribidesi, denied that the Unit demanded N250,000 from the grieving family.
Aribidesi said: “In the first instance, the corpse is not with Task Force.
“Task force only intervened to restore normalcy and orderliness at the scene of the incident that happened at Abule Egba.
“It is left for police to do their duties.
“Anybody that is going to collect a corpse from a mortuary should have a police report.”
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