Eloviano Abolarin, a Lagos resident who gave birth in December, was enjoying the festive period as a new mother when a call from the Elere Police Station in Agege indirectly informed her of her husband’s death on Saturday.
Abolarin told FIJ that after she identified a name the caller mentioned, which she recognised as her newborn child’s, the caller then told her to send someone to the police because Abolaji Abolarin, her husband, had been involved in an accident near the Pen Cinema Bridge in Agege.
She said she asked the police if the accident was fatal but he claimed it was only a fracture, which she did not believe.
“Somehow, I knew he was trying to downplay the situation to avoid worrying me because of my condition. At that point, I thought he was either dead or in a coma. This was because my husband always called or texted me, but he hadn’t done so,” Abolarin told FIJ.
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Abolarin’s sister, who was present when the call came, rushed to the scene and took videos, but Abolarin refused to watch them. According to her sister and others who saw the footage, they concluded it was murder.
“Nothing was missing in his car. The police were supposed to keep everything in his car as evidence, but they gave them back to us. It felt like they wanted the story to die down. However, the Rose of Sharon Parish of the Redeemed Christian Church of God, where we worship, wants to know more about the case,” she said.
“The church involved the Lagos State Commissioner of Police, who rang the station. After that call, the Elere Police retrieved all the items from his car that they had initially returned to us.”
What puzzles Abolarin is that she cannot think of any reason why her husband was killed. She said he left for the Redemption Camp in Ogun State on Friday and was heading to a mechanic’s office when the incident happened.
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Abolarin said she and her husband agreed before Friday that he would take their car to the repairman on Saturday morning, so she did not bother calling him because she expected him to return home in the morning.
“When the police gave me his phone, I saw that he called his mechanic, who is also my uncle, at 7:04 am on Saturday. Meanwhile, the police called around 8 am to inform me of the incident,” she said.
She said her husband, who was a committed worker at their parish in Ikeja, worked as an usher at the Redemption Camp for the first time on Friday. On his way back to Lagos, some members of the ushering department were in his car.
“One person got off at Berger,” Abolarin said.
“We contacted her, but we have no idea who else was in the car aside from that usher who lives near Berger.”
FIJ contacted Benjamin Hundeyin, the Lagos State Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), for comments, but his line was busy. He had not responded to FIJ’s text message at press time.
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