'Baba Ijebu' boss kills agent over missing N500

A lotto operator has been arrested over the murder of her agent following a missing N500.

A Lagos State based lotto, (Baba Ijebu) operator, Sade Onafowope, is now telling the police all she knows in the murder of one of her agents, Oluwatosin Efuneye, after he could not account for a missing N500.

The Lagos State Police Command, in a release, states that Onafowopo, a principal lotto agent who has shops with clerks in the Ojuelegba and Somolu areas, one of which the deceased operated, had ordered thugs to beat up the agent when she realised that the money was missing from his coffers and the overzealous miscreants, popularly called area boys, tortured the young man to death.

The incident happened on 15 January, at Makinde Street, Ojuelegba, Lagos, where Onafowopo, popularly called Shandy, lives and operates her lotto business.

It was gathered that the 31-year-old Efuneye who hailed from Ijebu-Ode, Ogun State, had collapsed during the beating and was rushed to a private hospital where he was confirmed dead while the crime was reported to the Area C Police Command, Surulere.

Efuneye's distraught father could not believe that his son who spoke with him few hours before the incident, is truly death.

The septuagenarian spoke with Punch Newspaper:

"Tosin (Efuneye) was doing the lotto business at Esan Ogboogun Street, Somolu. But he would normally go to Ojuelegba every morning to remit the previous day’s proceeds to his boss, Shandy. He stayed with me with his younger brother. He was not married.

What happened on last Thursday was shocking. I learnt that when he got to Shandy’s place, the woman said a customer came to complain that Tosin had deducted N500 from the N1,000 which the customer used to play the lotto. The customer then claimed he had won N240,000, and demanded his winning.

Shandy did not wait for any explanation from Tosin. She arranged for thugs on her street to torture him. They stripped him to his underwear, and beat him up. Shandy did not report to the lotto’s head office in Lagos State. She did not report to the family or to the police.

She and the thugs beat up Tosin until he collapsed. They rushed him to a private hospital, but he was already dead. When I learnt about the matter, I called Shandy on the phone, she refused to pick my calls."

The Lagos State Police Public Relations Officer, PPRO, DSP Kenneth Nwosu, confirmed the incident, saying that Onafowopo was being interrogated to identify other miscreants involved in the incident.

"The suspect is in our custody, and she is helping the police with information to arrest other suspected killers of the deceased."