Peter Ayole, a 52-year-old auditor at the Abakaliki office in the Ebonyi state Electricity Distribution Company, has died after he was stoned to death by some residents in the Ota-Idiroko area in Ogun state on May 23rd.
According to Punch, Peter was recently granted leave and decided to spend it with his immediate family based in Ogun state. Upon his return, he noticed that the generator of a building sited close to the house he was constructing was emitting smoke that was preventing his workers from doing their job.
His attempt to get the owners of the generator to find a solution to the smoke led to his death. Narrating what happened, his wife and mother of his seven children, Oluwafunmilayo, said:
“We were together at home that morning when he said he was going to our site to see how the plumbers were doing. We had had some people coming to ask us that they needed rooms for rent. Not up to 30 minutes after he left, I got a call that my husband had fallen after he was stoned. The site is just a stone’s throw from our house, so I got there in no time. I saw that he had been laid on a plank, lifeless. I asked what happened and I was told that he was stoned by some people who sold confectionary beside the construction site.
I learnt that when he arrived there, he met the plumbers idle. The plumbers told him they could not work because of the fumes from the generator of the neighbours who were selling confectionary. My husband had complained to me several times about them before and all his appeals to them to shift their generator house were abortive. So, he picked a stick and climbed three blocks beside the toilet under construction. He started hitting the roof of their building with the stick and calling them to turn off their generator. My husband continued hitting the roof when someone stoned him with something like a grinding stone, which hit him in the head. He fell and became unconscious.
The workers at the site took him to a private facility in the area where he was confirmed dead. He was subsequently brought back to the site. We took him to another private hospital, where the doctor did not even allow us to bring him in before confirming him dead. But he said we could still keep him in an airy place to see if he would regain consciousness. By evening, we took him to the last hospital where he was again confirmed dead. By this time, blood had started flowing out from his nostrils and mouth,” she added.
The distraught wife said before her husband was taken to a mortuary, some policemen from the Onipanu division in the state had visited the building site to effect his arrest as the neighbors had complained that he was disturbing their peace. The police officers then told her to follow them since he was indisposed.
“I was weeping and pulling my husband’s legs and head for him to wake up when the policemen arrived and said they had a complaint against him. Obviously, those people after seeing the damage they had caused, went to report to the police as a cover-up. One of the men with me later volunteered to make a statement on my behalf at the division,” she said.
Elder brother of the deceased, Isiaka Ayole, a police officer attached to the State Criminal Investigation and Intelligence Department, Yaba, Lagos, described the deceased as “highly intelligent.” He said that their family demands justice.
“When I went to the police station, the Divisional Crime Officer told me my brother killed himself. But we checked the statements of the witnesses and they said he was stoned. All I want is justice for my brother,” he added.
Five suspects namely Morenike Akinleye (43), Ajah Chijioke (46), Sulaimon Akinleye (30), Bose Adebesin (24) and Nurudeen Adekunbi (20) – have been arrested in connection with the case and are currently being held at the State Criminal Investigation and Intelligence Department, Eleweran, Abeokuta.
