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Gunmen Kill Newswatch Assistant Editor In Lagos

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Hours after he was shot twice in the stomach by suspected armed robbers, the Deputy Editor of Saturday Newswatch, Mr. Toyin Obadina, died in the early hours of yesterday February 2nd 2014.

Obadina, who was shot by suspected armed robbers at the Ikorodu area of Lagos on his way home after the day’s work, was rushed to the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH), Ikeja, where doctors battled to save his life.

Toyin Obadina

Eyewitnesses said the deceased, driving a Toyota Yaris car, was intercepted by the suspected armed robbers on the Itoikin-Old Ijebu-Ode Road, while going to his residence in Parafa area of Ikorodu.

Though he was said to have cooperated with the demands of the gang who were in two Sport  Utility Vehicles, they shot him point blank before abandoning him in a pool of his blood.

His wife,   Abiola, in earlier reports said her husband was responding to treatment after the doctors carried out an emergency surgery on him to extract the bullets from his body.

Sources said hours after the operation, Obadina  died  due to the   large quantity of blood he lost  as well as the extent of the damage the bullets caused in his stomach.
The state police spokesperson, Ngozi Braide, a Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP), said efforts were being made to arrest the suspects.

She said: “The DPO received a call informing him that Mr. Toyin Obadina (50 years), while driving a Toyota Yaris car with registration number AKD701CE, was attacked along Ijebu-ode by Hypo/Lucky Fibre junction.

“He was attacked by five hoodlums who operated in a jeep. They stole N20,000 from him and shot him in the stomach.

“The scene was promptly visited by the DPO and his team and they later visited the victim at LASUTH and he was responding to treatment. Unfortunately, we received another information that the victim has died.”

The Nigerian Guild of Editors (NGE) yesterday expressed shock and sadness over the death of Obadina.

NGE, which attributed the robbery attack that led to the death of Obadina to the profileration of small arms in the country, called on the government to arrest the situation.

The guild, in a statement by its President, Mr. Femi Adesina, on the death of Obadina, said the onus was on government at all levels to curb criminality and that anything less than that would not be acceptable.

“It is most probable that our colleague, Obadina, met his end through one of such illicit weapons,” he added.

He described Obadina’s death as not only agonising and horrendous, but “sickening.”
“All men of the fraternity of the pen, to which Obadina belonged, are revolted that a man returning home from his legitimate duty is waylaid, robbed, and then shot twice in the stomach, leading to his death later in the hospital.

“This once again underscores the abyss into which we have descended in Nigeria. Here, life is truly in that Hobbesian state of nature: nasty, brutish and short,”  he said.
While recognising the efforts of the Lagos State Government to ensure security in the state, the NGE said it was appalled by the spate of insecurity of lives and property.

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