Gunmen invade Lagos hotel, kill two as naming ceremony goes awry

Thirty-seven-year-old Christian Udochukwu Ukandu had no inkling of the ugly fate that awaited him when he visited Ikola Street, Meiran, Lagos to honour an invitation for a naming ceremony on December 19. Unfortunately, he became a victim of some assassins that had positioned themselves to wreak havoc in the area. Ukandu, whose former neighbours described as sociable and loving, was shot three times in the head. He was also macheted by the gunmen who stormed Ehis Hotel in Commando style that Monday night in search of the wife of Gerry Ovbiolokun, the deceased 67-year-old owner whose burial held between December 15 and 17. Ukandu, according to residents, was at the venue of the reception when someone told him that Mrs. Ovbiolokun and her children were around. He decided to seize the opportunity to commiserate with them on the death of the deceased, who neighbours said he was close to.

But shortly after entering the hotel’s premises, which also houses a residential apartment where the bereaved family stayed upon their return from the United Kingdom, the gunmen, it was learnt, drove into the street, parked their vehicle, entered the hotel and unleashed terror.

Before the rain of bullets, the assailants were said to have surrounded the hotel’s premises while one of them went to Mrs. Ovbiolokun’s wing and allegedly dispossessed her of the property’s documents, the owner’s death certificate, jewellery, mobile phone, international passport and other valuables. Nation