By Bose ADELAJA
He worked as a driver in a private company for the past ten years and had dreamt of setting up his own his transport company on retirement.

As a hard working father, he enrolled his three children in  private schools and promised to set up a small scale business for  his wife of twelve years before the end of this year.

But Ismaila Alabi, a native of Abeokuta in Ogun State did not live to see his dream come through. He was found in the pool of his own blood around 8pm of Monday November 8, 2010 and before rescue could come his way, he gave up the ghost.

His widow,  31 year -old Fausat and the three children – Kundus, Ahmod and Habeeb aged five, three and one respectively, are yet to come to terms with the sudden exit of their bread winner.

Vanguard Metro gathered that the 32 year- old Ismaila left the comfort of his home that fateful Monday with no inkling by members of his family that they would never set their eyes on him again. He allegedly died of a gunshot on the eve of Ileya festival. He was said to have run into some hoodlums around 7.30pm of that fateful day.

As was his usual practice, Ismaila left his No 5 Sobukola Street, Ewupe-Ijaniye in Sango-Ota, Ogun State around 7am for his place of work at Dalemo, Sango-Ota where he had worked as a driver for a period of ten years.

Around 3pm on that black day, he accompanied his boss and chairman of Owoeye & Company Alhaji Akeem Owoeye, to the local airport in Ikeja, Lagos State. He had built  the father-  son relationship with his boss but this relationship came to abrupt end that painful Monday.

Immediately his boss was checked in, he went back to Ijako in Sango-Ota and parked the car before finally setting out for his abode at Ewupe. But a stone throw to his house,  he ran into a group of hoodlums who were on rampage in this community and before he knew what was happening, he was shot at a close range.

While still battling with death, he managed to put a call across to his elder brother Alhaji Akeem Alabi, his boss and wife to alert them of his predicament but help never came his way before he gave up the ghost. While his brother rushed to the scene in his private car to save his dying brother, the hoodlums allegedly beat him to the point that he went into coma.

Luckily for Akeem, some security guards from a private company in the area were able to rescue him from the hands of the hoodlums. But his brother was not lucky as he gave up the ghost before help could come his way. He was said to have lost  too much blood before anybody could locate him.

When Vanguard Metro visited his widow recently, she was yet to come to terms with the sudden demise of her heartthrob. She went into memory lane to give an account of her last conversation with deceased. ‘’I was in the kitchen around 7.30 pm when I heard  sporadic gunshots in the community and I started praying for my husband to return home unhurt.

Ismaila had been an easy going man since I met him about twelve years ago; he never drank or smoked. On that fateful Monday, he called me around 3pm and 6pm before a distress call around 8pm. I called his three cell phones but all were switched off. It was later we discovered that he had died of a gun shot,’‘ she narrated.

Ismaila’s elder brother also gave Vanguard Metro an account of the incident that led to his brother’s death, ’‘Ismaila had lived in my house for a number of years and on that day, he drove his boss to the airport to board a night flight to Abuja. He parks the car at the home of his boss at Ijako before returning home.

When I got home around 7pm, I saw a land speculator Taofik popularly called ‘’Job card’‘ in our area and I asked him what he was looking for since he was not a resident of our community. He told me that he came to foment  trouble in the community.

Immediately, I put a call across his boss popularly called Omole and informed him about the situation and he assured me he would call his boy to order. About an hour later, the boss called that he could not reach his boy on phone. While this was going on, I heard sporadic gunshots; this was followed by a distress call from Ismaila that he had been shot at Ewupe junction.

He mentioned some familiar names. Baffled by this, I called Omole to inform him that my younger brother had been shot on his way home and all he told me was that he would find out,’‘

‘’Out of curiosity, I drove my car to the scene in order to take him to the hospital but what I saw baffled me. As I was approaching the junction, my flash light pointed at some land speculators and I saw the same people whose names were earlier mentioned by my late brother.

To my greatest surprise, I saw a Toyota Camry car belonging to Omole and he stood beside it. As soon as they saw my car, they pounced on me and started beating me with the boot of the gun and other dangerous weapons.

My clothes were torn to shreds; they also beat the motorcyclist that conveyed Ismaila to the junction before sympathisers came to rescue us. Unfortunately Ismaila had lost a lot of blood before he was rescued and he died on the way to the hospital while the rest of us spent some weeks in the hospital. Shedding tears, he explained that the deceased’s boss also received the same distress call from Ismaila.

The community leader of Ewupe could not be reached  when Vanguard Metro visited him but some residents of the community who spoke to this reporter, appealed  to the Ogun State government to ensure security of lives and property in the community, ‘’Some people usually besiege this community in the name of Omo-Oniles to destroy lives and property.

I was in my shop on November 8 when they started the rampage but luckily for me, I crawled to the backyard before I finally escaped;  my neighbour also had a narrow escape,’‘ said a trader, who introduced herself as Madam Grace Olaifa.

Akeem told Vanguard Metro that about six suspects were already cooling off at Force Headquarters Annex, Alagbon in Lagos State in connection with Ismaila’s death. He however lamented what he called delay tactics being employed.

’‘A lot of progress was recorded initially and some suspects were arrested but recently, I heard from a reliable source that the principal suspects has connived with some top members in the Nigerian Police to sweep the case under the carpet.

The progress has been slowed down, I learnt one of the officers there had been manipulating the case simply because our family is poor. The suspects must not go free, I urge the Inspector General of Police Hafiz Ringim and Lagos State Commissioner of Police Marvel Akpoyibo to use their good offices to bring the culprits to book,’‘ he added.