A human rights lawyer, Mr. Olakunle Fadipe, was on Thursday night, murdered by a lone assailant who invaded his home at the Harmony Estate, along College Road, Ogba, Lagos State.
The deceased was as a former member of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) and a member of the Editorial Board of The Guardian newspapers.
Saturday Tribune gathered that one of the deceased lawyer’s children and his mother-in-law were also injured by the assailant, who was reportedly later arrested.
The yet-to-be-identified assailant was said to have gained entry into the lawyer’s residence after his (lawyer) son opened the gate of the building.
He was said to have injured the young boy as he forced himself into the building. The boy raced into the sitting room of the apartment, where his father and grandmother were sitting.
According to the information available to the Saturday Tribune, the assailant followed the boy to the sitting room, where he demanded for N500,000 and threatened to “kill somebody” if the money was not paid.
The late lawyer was said to have struggled with the assailant, after the latter tried to stab his mother-in-law. The attacker then turned on him and stabbed him several times in the neck with a knife he was holding.
A police source at the Olowosokedile Police Station confirmed the incident to Saturday Tribune. He said the police responded swiftly to a distress call but that the harm had been done before the policemen arrived at the scene.
Efforts to get the reaction of the image maker of the state police command, Ngozi Braide, were futile as calls to her mobile phone were not answered.