Nigerian Newsday

By Abubakar Sani

Many residents of Gidan Mangoro, an Abuja suburb, are now in a state of shock over the death of a sixty-year-old tractor operator who was murdered in cold blood.

Late Mr. Ishaya Gagbe was last week slaughtered in his sleep by unknown killers in front of his house.

The intense heat in his room, it was believed, forced the deceased to seek the cool breeze outside and was lying on a mat in his compound when he was attacked by his assailants.

When Nigerian Newsday visited the scene, the late Mr. Gagbe was seen lying on his mat with his throat slashed while his relations were crying beside his corpse.

His eldest son, Mr. Jonathan J. Ishaya, told our correspondent that his late father around 11pm decided to go outside to get some fresh air.

However, he said, they became worried when they woke up later in the night and discovered that their father was still outside even though the rains had started falling.

Said he: "My younger brother Jafet, woke me up and asked why our father was still not back into the room even as the rain was falling. He went out to wake him up but ran back screaming. So we rushed out to see what had happened and we discovered that our father had been killed".

Mr. Baba David Karshi, a relation of the deceased told our correspondent that the late Mr. Gagbe had been attacked on three occasions in the past and in one of those attacks, he almost lost one of his eyes.

Karshi said that he along with others have advised the deceased to leave that house and relocate to another place because of the way he is being attacked but he refused, saying that he would rather leave everything to God.

The police officer investigating the case, Mr. Austin James, told our correspondent that no stone would be left unturned to unravel the identities of the killers of late Gagbe.

Nigerian Newsday also learnt that the late Mr. Ishaya Gagbe worked as a tractor operator with the Loyola Jesuit college and has leaved in the area for eleven years. His corpse has since been released to the family for burial while investigations into the matter continued.

A resident of the area, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told Nigerian Newsday that they have been having sleepless nights for some time now following threats to their lives by some highly placed individuals over land compensation payments made about two years ago, which is now a subject of controversy between the villagers and authorities in the FCDA.

It would also be recalled that about 60 students of Loyola Jesuit College located in the area were among the passengers who lost their lives in the Sosoliso plane crash which occurred in Port Harcourt, in 2006.