Ayo and Habeeb Adeosun were classmates though the latter, who just completed Quranic studies, was 17, a year older. Not much is known about Ayo in police net now—except what witnesses said.
He had a brush with Habeeb. They traded a blow each, and Habeeb collapsed.
“I thought he was joking,” Ayo, in tears, told the police.
Habeeb stayed down, and could not beat the count. Mates ran wild, tried to revive him with water, a kiss of life, emergency aid. Nothing worked.
The news spread out of the school, and relatives of Habeeb and baddies from outside stormed the premises. Ayo had to steal out.
Habeeb’s parents came, took his corpse away, and buried him as Islam permits.
Ayo was no pugilist. He had no champion belt. That a 16-year-old could throw a fatal jab with bare knuckles puzzles the police investigating the matter. The case gets knottier because there is no crime scene evidence, no medical history of Habeeb. No autopsy report.
But classmates offered versions of the incident. One apparently jibed with the police looking beyond an accident here.
A relative of Habeeb’s called Ewenje gave an account: Habeeb and Ayo got in the fight because he stepped on Ayo’s girl’s toes that morning. He challenged Habeeb who gave him a dig in the chest. Ayo threw his own haymaker, and Habeeb went down.
Another: The two mates struggled with each other for that same reason—treading on Ayo’s babe’s toes. And Ayo, wearing a charmed ring, hit Habeeb.
Ayo has denied all the versions.
“I didn’t hit him with any ring. Both of us were friends. We used to play together. Why would I kill my friend?”
He said he cried when he heard Habeeb wasn’t pretending staying down.
“It was a teacher that asked me to leave the premises when people were looking for me,” he said.
The Police Public Relations Officer in the state, DSP Abimbola Oyeyemi, confirmed the incident.
He said investigation started right then.
The rub is Habeeb’s family, according to Ewenje, said they were not interested in pressing any charge against Ayo. That forecloses exhumation for an autopsy.
The police have not got the ring other students claimed Ayo used to hit his friend.
Even if the ring turns up, investigating its power requires a guinea pig.