COUPLE BATHED WITH ACID IN OSUN STATE

banker in Ile Ife, Osun state, Mr Tope Akinlabi and his wife, Mulikat were bathed with acid by yet-to-be-identified persons. It was learnt that Tope and his wife were returning home on foot from work on Monday December 16th when two men riding on a motorcycle met up with them and emptied the content of a jerry can on them. Tope was said to have gone to his wife’s shop at Eleyele area of Ile Ife after the close of work that fateful day. The attackers met up with them when they were both going home on foot around 7pm when the incident occurred. It was learnt that while the husband’s face was badly affected, the burns on the wife’s face was less severe due to the hijab she was said to be wearing at the time of the incident. It was the screams of the couple that attracted passersby who were said to chase the attackers and caught them. While doctors are battling to save his eyes, Tope said he was still scared because he did not know the people behind the attack and the reason they targeted his family. He said, after the close of work I went to my wife’s shop to wait for her to close. And we went to an eatry and bought some snacks for our kids. My wife and I were walking down the road around Eleyele street when I say a motorcyclist carrying a passenger coming towards us. I told my wife that this bike would hit us but before I could finish speaking the person at the back of the bike poured acid on us’’. ‘‘It was our cry for help that attracted passersby to our aid while others pursued the two men that attacked us. Eventually they were caught and it was while the sympathisers started beating them that the bike men confessed that they were sent by someone and pleaded for their lives. Mr Tope said that he had not quarrelled with anyone, he does not owe anyone and no one owes him, we don’t have any enemy’’ he added. He urged the police to find those who are after his life, saying he was still living in fear because he didn’t know if the person behind his attack were satisfied with his present state or meant to kill him. The wife, Mulikat, said she didn’t know why the hoodlums attacked both of them, adding that those arrested had been taken by the police to the State Criminal Investigation Department at the Osun State Police Command headquarters.