Family members and friends of slain Adeniyi Sanni, a senior aide to Senator Solomon Adeola, who is the lawmaker representing Ogun West in the Senate, have mourned the demise of their loved one.
The bereaved held a Service of Songs in honour of the deceased on Awoniyi Jones Avenue, the Ikeja area of Lagos on Tuesday.
A candlelight procession was also held from the venue of the Service of Songs to Allen Roundabout and back to the takeoff point.
He will be buried on Wednesday (today) at the Redemption Camp Vault, Mowe, along the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway after a brief funeral service at the Redeemed Christian Church of God, Rhema Chapel located inside the Redemption City of God.
Sanni was murdered in the early hours of Saturday, August 5, 2023, in Lagos.
According to a statement by the senator’s Media Adviser, Kayode Odunaro, the late Sanni was stopped by security agents at a checkpoint in Ojodu, on his way to his home in Isheri, Lagos and he was asked to provide the documents of the car he was driving, which he did through his wife who sent all the documents to his phone via WhatsApp.
Odunaro said shortly after, the wife called his associates to say she could no longer reach her husband on the phone, necessitating the mobilisation of a search party.
She was said to have been contacted later by passersby through the next-of-kin phone number on her husband’s driver’s licence that his body was dumped around the Toyota Bus Stop in Oshodi, Lagos with gunshot wounds.
In a separate statement on Monday, Adeola alleged that his aide “was killed by a syndicate of soldiers operating under the newly-deployed Commander of 9 Brigade, Ikeja Cantonment of the Nigeria Army, Brigadier General Nsikan Edet, through the mounting of checkpoints and robbing of lone occupants of cars.”
Contacted for a reaction on Tuesday, the spokesperson for the 81 Division of the Nigerian Army, Victoria Island, Lagos, Lt. Col. Olabisi Ayeni, said he would get back to our correspondent, but was yet to do so as of the time of filing of this report.
Meanwhile, Sanni’s friends and family members dressed in black T-shirts with the inscription “Adieu Neyo” were seen mourning on Tuesday with some of them calling for justice.
Odunaro, in an interview with our correspondent, described Sanni’s death as a terrible thing.
“It’s a terrible thing, not only to Adeniyi’s family but also to Senator Adeola, having been with him for over 20 years,” he said.
He described the deceased as a dedicated and committed person whose impact was felt by everyone close to him, including the senator.
A member of the family, who spoke on condition of anonymity, demanded the arrest of the suspected soldiers who were allegedly involved in the killing.
“Since there are already reports that soldiers were involved in the killing, they should be arrested and made to face the consequences. This is human life,” he told PUNCH Metro during the procession.
An associate of the deceased identified simply as Raji also expressed sadness, saying he worked closely with Sanni for many years and he was good to everyone.
