The Lagos State Police arrested a man, 29 year old Ekanem Enodan for allegedly stabbing his friend 46 year old commercial motorcycle operator, Nicolas Goddonu, to death during an argument over paying for a N50 bottle of water at Oke-Ira area, Ogba, Lagos.
According to reports, On June 8, Goddonu, a father of five visited his friend Enodan at his shop in the company of his younger brother. He allegedly went into the shop at about 10:50pm and took a bottle of water which cost N50 without paying for it. Enodan allegedly tried to stop Goddonu from leaving his shop with the water by hitting him on his head with a bottle. Goddonu immediately slumped to the ground.
Enodan, thinking that Goddonu was pretending, walked over him, took back his bottled water and walked back into his shop.
Goddonu's brother checked on him to make sure he was fine but raised the alarm when he realized his brother wasn't breathing and was promptly rushed to the Ifako General Hospital, but was confirmed dead on arrival.
However, there were several versions of what really killed Goddonu, while some of them alleged that the Enodan stabbed him to death, others said he only pushed him, which caused him to hit his head on the hard floor.
An eyewitness Ufom Ekanem said:
‘They played a lot’. “The deceased and the suspects were friends. That was not the first time he would collect something from the shop and run away. “But he usually paid later. At times, the shop owner would be chasing the motorcyclist and at other times he would forcefully drag whatever Goddunu collected from his shop. “On that fateful day, the shop owner only pushed the okadaman in the chest, while attempting to collect the bottled water from him. He fell in the process and became unconscious.”
Another eyewitness, Biodun Odufare, said:
“The deceased was from Egun, while the suspect is from Cross River State. At about 11p.m., an argument which everybody concluded was their normal play, began. “But we suspected that the okadaman was drunk. As he was leaving the shop with the bottled water, the shop owner threw an empty bottle of soft drink at him.
“The bottle hit the kiosk and shattered, with one of its broken parts hitting Nicolas in the chest. He fell and was confiremd dead inhospital.” “He fell down and became unconscious. Later, we heard that he died at the hospital.”
The Spokesperson for the Lagos State Police Command, Dolapo Badmus, confirmed the incident saying:
“On June 9, at about 1a.m., one Mitchonou Suru, 16, reported at Pen-Cinema Division that at about 10:50p.m. the previous day, one Nicolas Goddonu, 46, was hit with a bottle by one Ekanem Enodan, 29, of Baba Dada Estate, Opic, Ogun State, during a quarrel between them.
“The victim was rushed to Ifako general hospital where he later died. Suspect was arrested and detained while corpse was deposited at the hospital’s mortuary for autopsy.”
