The deceased person had resumed work on April 12, 2022, as usual. The he had gone about his duty of securing a telecommunications mast base station operated by IHS in the Obanikoro area of Lagos without any hindrance or complaint.
Family members of Surajudeen Olawale Ogunneye, a 37-year-old man from Ijebu Ode, Ogun State, have accused the management of Real Strikers Security Services of working in connivance with others to cover up the cause of the death of their son while on duty.
The deceased person had resumed work on April 12, 2022, as usual. The he had gone about his duty of securing a telecommunications mast base station operated by IHS in the Obanikoro area of Lagos without any hindrance or complaint.
As the breadwinner of his family, the young man’s widowed mother and siblings looked up to him a lot for financial and moral support – and he never failed them.
He was popular among colleagues and people, who lived around his workplace where he had eked out a living for over 10 years.
Everything went on smoothly until the next morning, April 13, when Ogunneye’s younger sister, Zainab, received a call from a colleague of her brother informing her that he was ill and about to be rushed to a hospital in an ambulance.
The young lady was asked to quickly make it down to their office at Obanikoro so that she could accompany her ailing brother to the hospital.
But by the time she got to the place, it was the corpse of her brother with bruises all over it, that was shown to her.
“I was told not to be afraid, that he was only sick and needed to be taken to the hospital, that was why they wanted me to come around.
“But when I got there, my brother’s dead body was what they showed to me, telling me that they didn’t know how he died,” Zainab said while narrating the incident to SaharaReporters on Thursday.
Suspecting foul play, the family reported the matter at the Ilupeju Police Station and subsequently had it moved to the State Criminal Investigation and Intelligence Department, Panti, Yaba, Lagos, for speedy findings into the cause of the victim’s death.
However, since that period, the management of Real Strikers Security Services has allegedly been working tirelessly to frustrate police investigation into the incident.
From denying the victim’s family and police access to the duty post of the deceased to retrieve his personal items to refusing to fund the cost of autopsy and also failing to provide CCTV footage of the day Ogunneye was said to have died despite several requests from the police for the video, the management of Real Strikers Security Services has allegedly employed various tactics to ensure they escape possible prosecution over the circumstances surrounding the death of the young man.
“They have been playing games with us. The police asked the company to come with the CCTV footage to the station but they refused. The person that was supposed to take the police to the scene of the incident did not also show up.
“The company has been frustrating all our efforts to find out the cause of his death. So far, nobody from the company has visited our family since this incident occurred. They are also insisting that we would be the ones to pay for the autopsy.
“The company claims that the security camera is with their chief security officer but he has refused to hand it over to the police for analysis. They know that the moment they tender the CCTV footage, their lies will be exposed, so they have been doing everything not to release it to the police.
“The management of the company claimed that my brother died in the process of stealing diesel. But if that is true and they have the video evidence, why are they afraid to release it.
“He has worked at the place for over 10 years, how come CCTV never captured him stealing diesel for once? Why is it now that they are claiming he died in the process of stealing diesel? If they are sure of their claims, why are they reluctant to release the footage of that day?
“Bruises were found all over his body when it was brought out of the tank. We are sure that he was killed. It was after then that they threw his body into the tank to make it look like he died while trying to steal diesel.
“We are Muslims; we are supposed to have buried his body by now but the security company is frustrating all our efforts to get justice on this matter.
“My brother had huge dreams but they cut them short,” Zainab added.
An official of Real Strikers Security Services contacted by our correspondent over the issue declined comments, saying that the police were on the case.
The spokesperson for the police command in Lagos, Benjamin Hundeyin, when contacted by SaharaReporters, said he was not aware of the case but promised to find out the progress made with the investigation and get back to our correspondent.
He, however, advised the family of the deceased to hire a competent lawyer in their quest for justice over the death of their son.