A disagreement with a bread seller over N50 bread has led a 28-year-old man, Ajayi Peters, aka Ajana, to his early grave in the Yaba area of Lagos State.
According to residents, Peters was stabbed to death by the vendor identified only as Yinka, aka Buredi who sold bread on a slab at a roundabout on Church Street in Makoko area of Yaba.
Punch gathered that Peters had tried to prevail on Yinka after he refused to sell a loaf to one of his customers on credit.
An argument subsequently ensued and in the process, Yinka grabbed a knife and stabbed the deceased on the head which led to his death later in a private hospital.
Narrating the incident, a resident who did not want his name on print said, “The incident happened on Tuesday, June 16, around 11pm. The man that died was collecting fees from traders.
“He and Buredi (Yinka) had been having issues because Ajana (Peters) and some members of his group sometimes threw away his goods whenever they had problems with him.
“But on that day, a man had approached him to buy N50 loaf of bread on credit. The bread seller started shouting at the customer that he should not come near his bread because he was not ready to sell on credit.
“At a point, Buredi said, ‘No powerful man on this street can take the loaf from me and give you.”
However, while intervening on the matter, the deceased who felt insulted by the veiled reference to him, told the bread seller to give the customer the loaf which led to a rain of insults between the duo.
In the ensuing war of words, Peters pushed the suspect according to a resident who also preferred anonymity.
The source said, “The bread seller fell to the ground. In anger, he picked a knife and stabbed Ajana in the head. He started bleeding.
“But not realising the seriousness of the injuries, Ajana began to look for a weapon with which to attack back.”
The bread seller took to his heels thereafter while the deceased was led to a hospital where the injury was stitched.
However, the wound was deeper than expected according to a woman, who was reportedly close to the victim.
She said, “But the injury was deeper than we thought. He died from the injuries around 4am.”
The bread vendor who was unaware that Peters had died was lured to the area by some community members.
A resident, Solomon Ojo, said, “The bread seller did not know Ajana had died. He thought he was only injured and had treated himself.
“When he was called in the morning for a truce meeting, he was surrounded by some youths in the area who wanted to kill him. But some community leaders prevailed on them to hand him over to the police.”
Police officials from the from the Adekunle division had arrested the suspect while the corpse of the deceased was deposited in a mortuary.
Additionally, a source in the area while defending the suspect said the fight was politically motivated adding that Yinka did not kill the victim intentionally because he had always been harassed by hoodlums in the community.
He said, “The problem started during the elections when they discovered he was supporting a rival political party. They harassed him and damaged his goods at that time.
“Whenever they saw him plying his trade, they harassed him. What happened that day was just unfortunate. The man only acted in self defence.”
Confirming the incident, the state police image maker, DSP Kenneth Nwosu, said the matter had been transferred to the State Department of Criminal Investigation for further investigation.
