In the quiet town of Epe, a family has been left shattered, a community in mourning and a mother searching for answers after 17-year-old Michael Olaifa was brutally killed, allegedly at the hands of a man meant to protect.
EpeInsights learnt that the incident occurred at Idi Aba Junction, Paramount Ita Opo, a spot that now bears the weight of sorrow and blood.
Michael, described by friends and neighbors as peaceful and hardworking, never returned home that night.
His mother, Mrs. Seyi Olaifa, received the news no parent should ever hear while she was at the hospital caring for her daughter in labour. Her friend rushed in, visibly shaken, alongside Michael’s younger brother and a friend.
“I could see it in their faces. I asked what happened. Then they said, ‘Boda Idowu shot Michael.’ I was in shock. I kept asking, ‘Why?’ But they said he had done nothing wrong,” she recalled, her voice breaking.
According to witnesses, Michael and his friend had gone out to sell ram ropes to local Hausa traders in Oke Oyinbo.
On their way back, around 10 p.m., a gunshot rang out. Michael collapsed. His friend turned around and saw Boda Idowu, a member of the Oodua People’s Congress (OPC), armed with a gun.
But what came next was even more horrifying.
Michael, still alive and crying for help, was allegedly disemboweled with a cutlass. His last words, according to a witness, were heartbreaking:
“Boda Idowu, what have I done to you? I’m not a thief. I’m not a cultist. Why are you doing this to me?”
Despite efforts to rush him to the hospital, Michael did not survive.
The suspect, Boda Idowu, reportedly fled the area with his family after the incident, only to later resurface at the police station claiming Michael had tried to rob the nearby Zenith Bank. But locals and family members say that version of events simply doesn’t add up.
“This didn’t happen at Zenith Bank. It happened in front of his own house,” said a resident who asked not to be named.
Michael’s community remembers him as respectful and full of promise. His schoolmates and neighbors are struggling to understand how a simple errand ended in such a savage attack.
“He was not a cultist. He was not a thief. He had no trouble with anyone,” Mrs. Olaifa cried.
“They butchered my son like he was nothing. I don’t want money. I don’t want condolences. I want justice.”
