On July 22, 2025, a photojournalist with Inside Story, an online news outlet based in Lokoja, Kogi State, identified as Mr Ayo Aiyepekun, was murdered, allegedly by a neighbour, Mr Adebayo Pelumi, who reportedly resides in the same compound housing the Inside Story office.
A colleague of the photojournalist who witnessed the killing said he was in the office with Mr Aiyepekun doing some video and photo editing when the suspect called him to help him out on his poultry farm, which is also inside the same compound.
According to Mr Aiyepekun’s colleague, “It was around 7:30 pm when the suspect called him, but he didn’t know that Ayo was not the only person in the office. Immediately, Ayo gets out, Adebayo hits him with an iron repeatedly and kills him there.”
The eyewitness said he saw Mr Pelumi lifting the body into a deep freezer before moving the body into his Hilux Van, prompting him to raise alarm, adding “I called some people on the phone who mobilised the vigilante in the area, but before they came, Adebayo had made away with the dead body.
The witness further disclosed that along with the vigilante, they searched the area but could only see blood stains in the freezer and around the poultry stall.
He said while he was still with the vigilantes, Mr Pelumi drove into the compound with his van, and when he saw them, he refused to stop but reversed and drove away. The vigilantes chased him, and while trying to escape, his car had an accident during the chase, which made him jump out of the vehicle and run away.
The case was reported on July 23 at the State Police Headquarters in Lokoja.
Mr Pelumi was later found dead in a hotel in an apparent suicide.
