by Anike Jacobs

Last Thursday, a 15 year old hawker selling fish was gunned down in the ensuing gun battle between the armed robbers and the police men on the Lekki-Ikoyi link bridge, in Lagos.

The deceased’s aunt who identified herself as Mrs. Omolafe, told Punch newspapers on Saturday that Ibikunle was eager to study law after her secondary education, adding that she was abandoned by her mother when she was two years old.

Ibikunle, who lived with her aunt on Babalola Close in the area, was brutally killed on Thursday by a gang of robbers, who stormed a branch of First City Monument Bank Limited on Admiralty Way on the fateful day.

The victim was hawking fried fish after she returned from school before a bullet hit her.

Three policemen, whose names were yet to be ascertained and Ibikunle were shot dead during the shooting.

The cops were said to be part of a police team who stumbled on the rampaging bandits while they were escorting a bus belonging to an oil company.

Omolafe said, “Ibikunle was very friendly. She was living in Ondo State with my grandmother till she (the grandmother) died. I brought her to Lagos four years ago to start school. Her mother left her and her siblings when she was two years old and she had never looked after them since then. His father (my brother) died in 2009.”

“On Wednesday, she showed me the drawing which she wanted to submit on Friday. She said her class was told to draw what they wish to become in future. I prayed for her and warned her not to keep bad company if she wanted to accomplish her goal. She was always eager to learn English. She watched English movies a lot because of that. She and my son help me to hawk when they come back from school.”

“As if the loss is not enough, we were told to bring almost N100, 000 to embalm and bury her. They should have allowed me to carry her corpse that day. I don’t know where to get the money.”

The Lagos State Police spokesperson, DSP Kenneth Nwosu, said the state commissioner of the force, Kayode Aderanti, had ordered all the area commanders to intensify efforts at tracking down the bandits.