Alex John - the Masked Church Drummer
Homicide detectives attached to the State Criminal Investigations Department (SCID), Panti, Yaba, Lagos State, have arrested a church drummer, Mr. Alex John, a son of an ex police officer, for the attempted assassination of a woman and her daughter at the Isheri area of Ojodu Berger. John was said to have scaled the fence into the house of the 52-year-old widow, Mrs. Comfort Isong, and attacked her with a knife.
When Isong’s 17-year old daughter, Immaculater, heard her mother’s screams, she woke up and tried to stop the masked armed man. The man, however, turned on her and stabbed her in five different parts of her body, pushed her aside into her pool of blood. He proceeded to finished the 52 year old widow as he stated when he entered the room that “ I have come to finished you” that was his utterances to her when he entered her room.
The suspect was said to have bribed a security guard, working at the Gateway Magodo Phase 1 Estate, with N3,000 in order to allow him access into the community, where the victims’ house is located.
The incident occurred Tuesday, 14th November, 2017 at about 2a.m. at Oluwakemi Street oof Sangoremi Street, Isheri-Oke, on Lagos-Ibadan Expressway. Recalling the event, Isong said: “On that fateful day, my daughters and I were sleeping when I heard someone hit the door once and forcefully open it.
Before I could even blinked, a masked man brought out a very sharped knife and said I come to finished you, that he had come to kill me. Before I could utter a word, he had moved close to me and started stabbing me. “My daughter, who was sleeping, heard my shout and rushed out from her room.
She tried to stop him from stabbing me and also tried to unmask him. He overpowered my daughter and stabbed her in five different parts of her body. “At that point, I had lost a lot of blood. I couldn’t scream. It was the shout of my daughters that woke our neighbours.
Thank God for my eldest daughter who was also at him for a visit, who became savior to the family. When the mask man proceeded to another round of stabbing me, my eldest daughter hit him with an object on his head, over powered him and unmask him to the shocker of our life that it was John our neighbor who has come to finished us for no crime commited. When my daughter unmask him, he stood up from the floor and used my wrapper to cover his face and escaped through the Estate fence again.
It was later my neighbours rushed to our apartment only to see us in a pool of our blood. The assailant escaped by scaling the fence, in the same way he gained entrance into our compound.” Immaculater said: “What surprised us most was that the assailant did not demand money, phones or valuables from us. He was only shouting that he had come to finish us. I was sleeping in my own room when I heard the cries of my mother; it was her cries that woke me.
“When I tried to stop him from further stabbing my mother, he turned on me and stabbed me in the neck and other parts of my body and different part of my body.
Stabbed neck of Immaculater
Stabbed upper arm of Immaculater
SEE MORE PICTURES:
Immaculater
Mrs. Isong the 52 year old widow
When he noticed that some people were coming, he escaped. “Immediately the assailant escaped, some neighbours rushed us to Isheri Police Station to report the incident. The Divisional Police Officer (DPO), in charge of Isheri Police Station ordered that we should be taken to the hospital for medical attention.”
Immaculater added: “It was when the assailant was unmasked that we knew he is Alex John, who lives in the neighborhood. I know him; he’s a drummer in a benin white garment church in our street/community. After he left our apartment, he went to another neighbour’s house to steal a laptop; that was where he was arrested and handed over to the police.”
The suspect, who is in the custody of the Federal Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS), Ikeja, Lagos State Police Command, was said to have refused to make any confession since his arrest as he seems to be a harded criminal. He had also refused to explain why he attempted to kill mother and daughter.
According to the uncle who confessed that he (John) just returned from prison for similar offence, and from the way the uncle spoke, it like he escaped from prison.
We are waiting to see the outcome and how justice could be dish out.