Human right lawyer, Fadipe, Murdered

Posted by African Examiner Crime Watch, Featured, Latest Headlines, News Friday, July 4th, 2014

A human rights crusader and community leader, Barrister Olakunle Alexander Fadipe was yesterday killed by a lone assailant inside his sitting room at Harmony Estate, on College Road, Ogba, Lagos, Nigeria.

The incident which occurred at about 11pm on Thursday also saw the assailant stabbing the dead man’s son, Folarin, and his mother-in law.

Barrister Olakunle Alexander Fadipe

Eye witnesses said the assailant who was arrested and is now at the Olowosokedile Police Station may have gained access into the legal luminary’s home by scaling the fence and had attacked Folarin who had opened the door to switch off the electricity generator.

The boy who received severe wounds on his head and his right wrist had ran inside to alert the father to the presence of the intruder.

Eye witnesses further stated that the assailant upon seeing the late lawyer demanded the sum of N500,000 which the late Fadipe claimed he did not have at home, offering instead a lower amount and any other personal effect including the mobile phones and any other personal effects.

The assailant was claimed to have insisted on the amount and threatened somebody would die if the amount is not immediately brought out.

He thereafter began to engage the late Fadipe in a brawl stabbing him with the butchers’ knife and a kitchen knife obtained from the late lawyer’s kitchen.

The assailant was reported to have had a better access to stabbing the lawyer, when the latter wrestled him to the ground while defending his mother-in law from being stabbed to death.

Sources said Fadipe, a former member of the National Huan Rights Commission (NHRC) and a member of the editorial board of The Guardian Newspaper was savagely stabbed on the left side of the neck as well as the left side of the armpit, as well as to the stomach, losing a lot of blood.

The Divisional Police officer (DPO) of the Olowosokedile Police Station Mr Olatunji Ajimuda confirmed the incident.

He said he received the alert at about 12am and that the police has since commenced investigation into the incident.

Meanwhile prominent Nigerians among them the Chairman Ifako Ijaiye Local Government Hon. Oloruntoba Oke was among early callers at the house of the late legal luminary yesterday.