Update: How Kehinde Adeleke was shot dead at Trans Wonderland in Ibadan, eyewitnesses, security guard speak

Last week, news broke that Policemen attached to Operation Burst, the Oyo State anti-crime outfit, allegedly killed a man at Pete’s Bar and Lounge of the Trans Amusement Park, Bodija Area of Ibadan owned by Seun Olusa during an argument.  

The man identified as Kehinde Adeleke was allegedly shot dead during an argument over parking space at the park.

Further investigation jointly conducted by Mega Icon Magazine and National Insight News however revealed differences on how Kehinde Adeleke was shot dead at Pete’s Bar & Lounge housed by Trans Wonderland, Ibadan, Oyo State.

Witnesses to the unfortunate incident have contradicted the allegation of murder leveled against the owner of Pete’s Bar & Lounge, Mr. Seyi Olusa popularly addressed as ‘ Father Luski’ by the twin brother of the deceased, Taiwo Adeleke.

The two witnesses and a security guard whom were at the scene of the incident that led to the demise and eventual closure of the bar by the Oyo state government also gave differing accounts of what transpired.  

The security guard who was at the car park gave a comprehensive account of the investigation into the death of Kehinde Adeleke on Friday, including witnesses reports that contradicted the earlier claim, absolving Mr Seyi of killing the 30 year old young man last week Monday, February 26th, 2018.

Taiwo Adeleke had earlier alleged that the owner of the bar, Mr Seyi collected a riffle hanged on the shoulder from one of his friends, an officer attached to the security outfit codenamed ‘Operation Burst’ launched by the Oyo state government to curb criminal activities in the state and shot his twin brother. Some media also reported that it was accidental discharge from an army officer in the team of operation burst that hit him on the neck and unfortunately the victim could not survive after massive blood loss.  

It was also gathered that the deceased was buried on Thursday,  March 1st,  2018, while Mr Seyi who was alleged of murder has been detained by the police for further interrogation. One of the Security guards working with Pete’s Bar & Lounge who was at the car park and witnessed the incident, Alade Samuel narrated: “I was  at the car park when the deceased younger brother simply identified  as Damola engaged another customer in a fight over parking lot. Damola who had earlier parked his car at a particular spot at the parking lot left  the premises to get something outside Trans Wonderland premises and while driving in, another customer was already  parking his car  at the same spot where he had earlier parked. He ordered the guy to leave his space but being a public place, the guy declined and ignored him. Damola, then left his car to block that guy. They argued and later  engaged in physical combat. It was their noise that attracted our boss, Mr Seyi and some other people whom were around came out to settle the dispute, but Damola was adamant and not yielding".

He went on to say, 'he (Damola) insisted on beating the guy, while that was going on; the Operation Burst team came in and many people including, Mr Seyi and his friends returned to their tables. The soldier man asked both guys fighting to kneel down but Damola was adamant and the soldier hit him on the head with the cane in his hand and he went down immediately, pretending as if he had died but while going down he asked one of the people around to help call his brothers. On hearing their voices, he stood up and started shouting, bragging and pointing at the soldiers. The twin brother of the deceased, Taiwo and Damola were trying to take the gun from the soldier, it was in the process of dragging the gun that the man started shooting  into the air to disperse them but the guys were not deterred, they have attempted that before, in fact he once slapped a military man, it was my boss (Mr Seyi) and his friends that settled the matter that day“.

“It was one of the stray bullets that hit Kehinde and he fell down. Damola and his friends went on rampage, they were trying to  cause more trouble leaving their brother lying in a pool of his own blood. Later they took him and rush him out to where I don’t know, but few minutes later  more than 20 guys resurfaced with  broken bottles  and other unidentified weapons, I also ran for cover till they left the place”, Alade said.

Other witnesses who claimed to be regular customers at  Pete’s Bar & Lounge punctured the allegation raised against Mr Seyi, the owner of the bar, describing it as baseless, lies and a calculated attempt to implicate him. One of the witnesses, a friend to Mr Seyi who had some cuts on his fore head, hands and legs recounted how he narrowly escaped death from the guys who abducted him.  

He said: ”I was at the scene earlier but when we saw that the security people were on ground, everybody went back to where we were seated earlier including Mr. Seyi. About 10 – 12 minutes later, we started hearing continuous gunshots, accompanied by a loud voice, ‘leave me alone’. By the time the gun shots went down, we realized what was going on, these boys were almost 50, they came out attacking almost everybody, I personally was attacked. We were trying to find out what led to that before one of the guys now came and said somebody was hit by the bullet and the boys were shouting that we are the one that called Operation Burst, the whole thing was other way round.

The witness who confided in our reporters narrated further: “Along the line, I personally was abducted wanted to be taken away by these boys, he hit me with a bottle on my head, I was beaten up mercilessly, a lot of things were destroyed; along the line I was fortunate I escaped. My friends now have to take me to the clinic. I was at the clinic overnight and when I came back in the morning (Tuesday), the next thing I saw on the internet was that the owner of the bar took a gun from the soldier and shot Kehinde (deceased). I was wondering, how is that possible?. Very unfortunate that Kehinde is dead, a very painful thing because he was a very nice guy, he is the one that usually curtail the excesses of his twin brother and other people around him , he is a peace loving guy”, he added.