Encomium
ALHAJI Ademola Adeagbo, the Deputy Managing director of Intercontinental Finance and Investment Company and the auditor of the bank who allegedly implicated Dr. Erastus Akingbola, the embattled former MD/CEO of the bank, has been assassinated.
The 45 year-old chartered accountant, was assassinated on Friday, August 6, 2010, around 7.00pm, by three men who claimed to be policemen.
The father of three had closed from work that Friday, August 6, 2010 and his first port of call, on reaching his Mowe village, Ogun State home, was his wife’s shop, which is just a stone throw to his home, ostensibly to collect his keys.
While leaving his wife’s shop, two of his three daughters chose to follow him in his Toyota Corolla car, 2009 model. As he was driving along the narrow untarred road that leads to his home, a widow, whose son Adeagbo had been assisting with his admission to a higher institution stopped him for a discussion on the issue.
While discussing with the woman, a red car pulled behind his car, thinking that he had probably blocked them from passing, Adeagbo attempted to park his car very well, in order to create enough space for them to pass. But the three men, who came down from the red car told him not to bother moving his car at all.
Adding that it was him they are looking for and that they were policemen who have come to arrest him. Adeagbo was said to have told them he had not committed any offence to warrant his being invited by the police.
The assassins did not buy this argument and rather than produce the warrant of arrest demanded by Adeagbo, they tried to drag him into their car. When he refused, he was shot at close range by the three men. Immediately after their dastardly act, they moved into Adeagbo’s car and drove away. The car was later abandoned at Ibafo, a neighbouring village to Mowe.
Adeagbo, who had slumped then with blood gushing out of his body, was quickly picked up and put into his wife’s Honda CRV car and taken to Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH), Ikeja, Lagos, where he was pronounced dead. His corpse was later deposited at the morgue.
His assassination has, however, stirred-up another controversy on the financial impropriety allegations against Dr. Erastus Akingbola.
Many of Adeagbo’s family members and friends are of the opinion that his assassination may not be unconnected to the case. This is because Adeagbo, by virtue of his position as the auditor of Intercontinental Bank, was several times the guest of EFCC while the investigation into the alleged financial impropriety in the bank was going on.
He was said to have co-operated with the officials of the anti-corruption body to the extent that he was being considered as their star witness against top management staffers of the bank who were implicated in the fraud.
According to a family source, who does not want his name published, prior to his assassination, Adeagbo had received several death threats from unknown persons. When we called Mr. Femi Babafemi, the EFCC spokesman on the issue, he promised to get in touch with the officials of the organization handling the case to ascertain whether the late Alhaji Ademola Adeagbo, before his untimely death, was indeed the organization’s star witness.
When we called Intercontinental Bank’s corporate affairs office, one Mr. Seun Adesida, who spoke to us directed us to Intercontinental Finance Company. Adding that it’s not within his purview to respond to such allegations.
This story was first published in Encomium Weekly on Tuesday, August 17, 2010
