Brutalised Sarah Bakare

 

For Sarah Bakare, 51, a resident of 21 Oluwole Street, Ejigbo, it was a close shave with death as her Landlady identified as Mrs. Lydia Opatola in connivance with her children subjected her to an attack for reasons best known to them.

Sarah, while narrating her ordeal to Daily Times said her travails started in January 2014 barely two months after she moved into the house. Barely two months after she moved into the house, the landlady's children began formenting trouble.

“First it was her son Folorunsho, who is about 24 years old who was always coming to peep through the window of my bathroom whenever I or my daughter is bathing. It became a continuous occurrence and when I couldn’t stomach it any longer, I reported the matter to my Landlady. To my utmost surprise, she asked me if I did not want her children to walk freely on their father’s property. I reported to their agent who pleaded with me to be patient that he would talk to them” she said.

Little did Sarah know this was the beginning of a more dangerous experience, she speaks on. “Shortly after that, they used a big stick to block my pipe where water flows through the house; they also used iron to also block my sink from the outside. I reported to the landlady again, yet, she refused to take any action. It was at this point that I reported the matter to the Landlords Associations. When the landlords association delegates came to the house to investigate what was going on, her children got violent and almost attacked them” she disclosed.

She disclosed that the last straw which broke the camel’s back happened on the 15th of October, 2015, in her words “I went out to fetch water as it was not flowing inside, little did I know that it was trap. As I made to open the tap, someone hit me from behind with a plank on my back. I fell and became unconscious for a while.

“When I regained consciousness, I saw my Landlady, her seven children and daughter in-law beating me. I started calling my daughter Toyin for help. My daughter who was in the bathroom rushed out, she too was given the beating of her life. They locked the gate and put on the generator to drown the noise we were making during the scuffle”.

Our saving grace was the intervention of a neighbour who alerted members of the Odua People’s Congress (OPC) in the street who forced open the gate and came to our rescue.

As soon as they sighted the OPC members, six of her children jumped the fence and escaped, the OPC members were only able to apprehend the Landlady, her daughter and daughter in-law. We were taken to the OPC tarmac from where we were taken to the Ejigbo Police division.

“I have spent over N30, 000 to treat myself at the Isolo General Hospital and I am still spending. I am therefore calling on the Lagos State commissioner of Police to please call for immediate investigation into this matter. I want Justice. If not for God I do not know if I would still be alive to tell my story. The police at Ejigbo are not handling the case as they should. The Opetola’s should be fished out from their hiding and made to dance to the rhythm of the music they choose to play,” Bakare said.