In what could be described as a drama, a 36-year-old food vendor, Akenom Israel has been bathed with hot soup by one Franklin Ebuka, husband to his fellow food vendor, over minor dispute on a missing phone.
Niger Delta Connect gathered that the victim resides in Arakale street in Akure, Akure South Local Government Area of Ondo State.
It was also gathered that Ebuka’s wife and Israel have their tables side by side near a popular hotel along Oba Adesida road, Akure.
According to an eyewitness, Ebuka, who is on the run, poured the hot soup on Israel while arguing with his wife’s customer over the disappearance of a phone.
However, an unconfirmed report said he might have acted under the influence of alcohol.
Narrating what transpired, Israel said, “My sales girl handed her phone to my wife’s younger sister at about 10:30 pm to hold for her while she was busy attending to customers.
“I had warned my wife that whenever she is attending to customers, she should never be distracted by her phone calls and other things.
“After we were done at about 1.00am, my wife asked her sister for the phone. But the lady told her that one Sola, a commercial motorcyclist came and snatched it from her, thinking that he would soon bring it back.
“I wasn’t aware of all these because I slept off. They woke me up, saying that they were looking for the phone that Sola came to collect from my sister-in-law.
“I got worried because I knew Sola to be a serial phone thief in that area.
The victim said he searched around for Sola, until he saw him and immediately demanded for the phone, but he picked up a serious fight with him.
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“It was while we were quarrelling that Mr Ebuka saw us and all of a sudden, he carried his wife’s pot and poured hot soup on me.
“On our way to seek medical help, we ran into the men of the Amotekun Corps on patrol who handed us over to the police”, he narrated.
An eyewitness, Jayeola Ojo, who is a Disc Jockey (DJ) at the area said Sola came to drop a phone on his machine at about 10pm on that same day, but later came to collect it an hour later.
“When they raised an alarm that the phone was missing, we called the number and it was ringing. But the phone was nowhere to be found.
“I saw Oga Israel dragging Sola to produce the phone when the other man, Ebuka, came from nowhere and poured the pot of soup on him”, he said.
However, the suspect’s wife, Ruth Ebuka, who did not deny that her husband committed the crime, said he and the victim were intoxicated with alcohol.
Confirming the incident, the Commander, Ondo Security Network Agency, codenamed Amotekun Corps, Akogun Adetunji Adeleye said his men handed over the victim and the suspect to the police immediately.
“While our patrol team from Akure South Local Government Area were on patrol at about 1am on Thursday, they intercepted the crowd that wanted to take them to the hospital and handed them over to the police at ‘A’ Divisional police.
The Amotekun boss stated that such matters are being treated by the Police, not Amotekun.
