Man kills brother in a fight

A man believed to be psychotic was paraded by the Lagos State police command on Friday for allegedly killing his younger brother. The incident happened on October 21 at about 4pm, when the suspect, Jide Akinsanya, 28, quarrelled with his brother for keeping late nights.

In anger, the younger, Idris Akinsanya, 26, broke a bottle on his brother’s head and tried to stab him with a knife. But the elder Akinsanya said, in self-defence, he pushed the knife towards his brother, in the process stabbing him in the chest.

Immediately he saw him slump, he tried to escape but was apprehended by residents around Olaoja Street in Ejigbo, a suburb in Lagos State, where the crime occurred.

“Na my brother fight me,” he said. “He told me I am mad man and come fight me because I used to caution him when he go out and come home late. He carry bottle stab my head and then carry knife. I push his hand with the knife and I run. I want to travel that day.”

Mr. Akinsanya’s girlfriend, Mariam Rafiu, who lived with the brothers and their mentally challenged father in an electronics repair shop, said she was away when the incident occurred.

Ms. Rafiu who is the breadwinner of the household, said she went looking for food and returned to meet a crowd around the shop, and some of the residents prevented her from going anywhere until she reported the incident to the Ejigbo Police Division. She confirmed that the accused was mentally unbalanced.

Ms. Rafiu, who is eight months pregnant, said her “husband” and father of their two-year-old child had not always been “mad”. She said they both attended Mushin College, Egba; and that out of love and pity for him, she disobeyed her parents to be with him.

“I just came back from teacher’s training when I saw the way he was behaving after his father became mad. I disobeyed my parents even though they said I shouldn’t go to stay with them because I just want to pity for him. I am carrying his baby. I love him,” said Ms. Rafiu, a school teacher in Iyana Iba.

The Lagos State police spokesman, Frank Mba, said the police are handicapped in dealing with cases of emotionally disturbed persons (EDP). He said the State Criminal Investigation Department (SCID) Panti, Yaba will be carrying out forensic tests in the course of investigations.

“The police do not have the wherewithal in dealing with EDP cases. But as the police meticulously investigate the case, we will continue to keep notes and records and seek the assistance of medical experts, particularly psychiatrist experts,” Mr. Mba said.

However, Yemisi Akinsanya, 57, the brothers’ mother who is a local government cleaner, had pleaded for the government to spare her only surviving child. She blamed her woes on her husband (the brothers’ father) who she said left in 2002 after he tried to stab her over her disapproval of his extra-marital affairs.

“Na me be the only pikin from my mama. And na six pikin I born. Now five don die, na dis one remain. Abeg help me beg government to leave am for me. Na my last pikin. I no get another,” Mrs. Akinsanya said in pidgin amid tears.