A young man identified as Azeez has reportedly died after he was allegedly assaulted by suspected cultists following a dispute over a missing phone in the Oko-Oba area of Agege, Lagos State.
A police source who spoke with The Punch on Sunday said the incident happened on Monday, August 3, after an argument involving Azeez and some of his colleagues over a phone that went missing after they attended a party.
According to the source, the disagreement escalated into an assault on Azeez by some of the suspected cultists, who were reportedly his friends.
“We got a report that he passed away as a result of an assault on him by some suspected cultists said to be his friends. The argument was as a result of a missing phone,” the source said.
The source added that Azeez eventually died from injuries he sustained during the assault.
However, an anti-cultism advocacy platform, Naija Confra, provided further details of the incident in a post on Saturday, stating that the matter started on Sunday night, August 2, during a birthday celebration.
The platform alleged that a fight broke out at the party, during which a man identified as Abela allegedly picked up a phone and handed it to Azeez.
Trouble reportedly began when the owner of the phone discovered it was missing and started searching for it.
Naija Confra alleged that the owner and some of his friends confronted Azeez after the phone was found in his possession.
Azeez reportedly told them that Abela had given him the phone to keep.
“Abela, who was sitting there, denied Azeez, even when people saw him. Azeez would never accuse Abela, an NBM leader who is also a boss to him, if it was not true,” the platform claimed.
The advocacy group further alleged that the phone owner and his friends, unable to confront Abela, attacked Azeez before leaving the party.
It said Azeez later confronted Abela over his alleged denial of handing him the phone, resulting in another argument and a subsequent assault.
The platform also alleged that Azeez was taken to another location by suspected members of the Neo-Black Movement, where he was allegedly attacked.
Efforts to obtain the reaction of the Lagos State Police Public Relations Officer, Abimbola Adebisi, were unsuccessful.
Calls placed to her telephone lines were not answered, while a text message sent to her had yet to receive a response as of the time of filing this report.
