By Adesina Soyooye
Chief Augustine Nwalieze, 65 years, had woken up on Sunday, April 26 with only one thought in mind – to go to Church. So, he took his bath, probably had his breakfast, climb down the staircase, and headed to one of the family’s three cars.
But he never made it. Not to the Church. Not back into the house to his family, not even to outside his compound in Ajah, Lagos where he lived with his wife, daughters and maids.
A couple of hours after he supposedly left for Church, his body had been bloodied, mangled, cut in pieces, almost – inside his compound.
His gateman, it is alleged, had matcheted him to death. The sight was gory and heartbreaking. He had been murdered in a most gruesome manner.
Said a member of his family: “We found his body with machete cuts”
Chief Nwalieze, before his gruesome murder in his Lagos compound, was a Transport Manager with Okeyson Motors, a reputable Transport company which vehicles ply between Lagos and other parts of the country, particularly, the South-south and the South-east.
It is not quite known what happened between him and his gateman. Did they have a previous misunderstanding? A dispute? How? Why? Was it a planned robbery attack gone awry or a premeditated murder?
A family member who spoke to Vanguard Newspaper, on condition of anonymity, narrated how shocked and devastated and traumatised family members are.
He said: “My father-in-law’s gateman killed him yesterday (Sunday). He had prepared for church service when the incident happened. He walked downstairs to the car park, close to the store where spare parts from his cars are kept and a solar panel that was stored there”
The family suspected nothing but became uncomfortable when it was noticed that none of the Chief’s cars had moved out of the compound. The three were still parked. So, they wondered how he went to Church. They tried to call him on his cell phone. The calls were not taken.
According to the Vanguard report, “Nobody could really tell what happened. They didn’t hear the sound of any car driving off or the gate opening. His three cars were still parked, so they became worried about his whereabouts. They called his phone, but he didn’t pick up.”
The only person who could have seen him was the gateman. So, they went to ask him.
“They went to the gateman, and he mentioned one of his friends, claiming he went out with him. But when the wife called that same friend, he said he hadn’t seen him that day.
Alarmed, members of the family came downstairs again to interrogate their gateman again, but they were shocked to find out that he had disappeared.
“By the time they returned to question him again, he had disappeared. That was when they began to search the compound thoroughly,” said the report. That was when his body was stumbled on.
“They found his lifeless body in one of the flats downstairs. He had machete cuts on his head, hands and body. It was a terrible sight,” the family member disclosed who did not give his name.
From the cuts all over hid body, it was a very violent attack. He was rushed
immediately to a nearby hospital but he was tagged as “brought in dead”.
Chief Nwalieze, before his death, lived in his Ajah residence with his wife, a daughter, two housemaids and another woman.
The questions are: Did the gateman act alone or with other people? Why did the Chief not shout as he was being matcheted? If he did, how come no family member, all of whom were upstairs, hear anything? Was there no struggle?
The gateman whose identity has not been made public was still on the run at the time of writing this.
Neither the family nor the Police has released an official statement but investigations have been started by the Police as they have already visited the crime scene.
