Man shot dead on wedding day

A newly married Deputy Superintendent of Immigration has been shot dead in a hotel in Lagos. P.M.NEWS gathered, this morning, that the deceased, Olugbenga Oti, 35, a native of Ijuta Ogbolu in Ondo state, was, until his death, attached to the Idiroko border, Ogun state.

Sources said, this morning, that Olugbenga and his wife, Lolade, got married last Saturday. And after the wedding reception, held opposite Maryland Comprehensive School, they left for their honeymoon in a Toyota Avensis car, accompanied by a retinue of security personnel. However, an hour later, he was allegedly shot dead by a security guard attached to Hotel Royale, located in Isheri, a suburb of Lagos.

When P.M.NEWS visited the hotel, a  manager working there, who did not want his name mentioned, confirmed the incident and said the death of the man was shocking. “What we learnt was that an argument ensued between him and the security guard, and in annoyance, the Immigration officer hit him on the head with a sharp object. The security man brought out his gun and shot him dead in retaliation.”

A younger brother of the deceased, Sekola Oti, who also spoke with our reporter, said: “On that day, at 6.30 p.m., my brother called me on phone to meet him in the hotel. I went and met him at the reception downstairs, while his wife was in the room. “We discussed at length and I told him I would meet him the following day. Not quite long after I left him, one of my friends informed me that my brother had been shot. I quickly ran back to the hotel and I saw his lifeless body on the floor.

“When  I asked what led to his death, the people who saw it all said the security man killed him over an argument and they descended on the security man, beating him mercilessly before the police came to his rescue.” The deceased’s wife, Tolani, who was devastated over the incident, said: “My joy has gone, we had been dating since 1998 before we decided to settle down as husband and wife. Where would I start from now?” Another painful twist to the death of Olugbenga is that, two days after his death, the man’s promotion letter came. He was among the 17 officers that passed out of the 185 that sat for the promotion examinations as confirmed by the Presidency in Abuja. Meanwhile, the killer guard is still in police custody as the incident is being investigated by police detectives at the State CID, Panti, Yaba, Lagos.