A trader, Azubuike Ebi, on Wednesday told an Ikeja High Court how his younger brother, Ejay Ebi, who ran away from terror attacks in the North, was murdered in Lagos by a 30- year-old Ifa priest, Adeshina Musiliu.

Ebi, while being led in evidence by the prosecuting counsel, Mr Akin George, said: “I am the older brother of the deceased, Ejay Ebi. He used to live in Jos and I asked him to come to Lagos to live in Ikorodu with me to avoid being killed by insurgents.

“On Nov. 6th 2014, my brother, who is also a trader, woke up early at 4.00 a.m. to go to Yaba to buy some goods.

“At 6.00 a.m., one of our brothers, Mr Matthew Amadi, called my mobile phone to tell me that my brother was lying dead at Kokoro Abu Roundabout in Ikorodu.”

The trader told the court that he immediately went to alert some vigilantes about what happened to his brother.

He said “I ran to the Onyeabo vigilante post to report but they said they did not want to be involved in issues of human corpse.

“When I left the vigilante post, I was weeping and heading to the Kokoro Abu Roundabout to take my brother’s corpse.

“I received another phone call telling me that the culprit who murdered my brother had been caught and taken to the police station.’’

Ebi said he immediately went to the police station where he met the defendant and a vigilante, one Mr Matthew Olanrewaju.

“Olanrewaju told me that he went to the crime scene and Musiliu ran to him, shouting that he is in trouble that he had killed a man and pointed to the corpse.

“According to Olanrewaju, he asked the defendant that why he would do such a thing and the defendant responded that an unknown spirit entered him, leading him to kill the deceased.”

The trader , however, said autopsy revealed that his brother was beaten to death with a stick.

He said: “My brother was beaten to death on the head with a stick and Musiliu confessed to the crime at the Igbobo Police Station and the State Criminal Investigations Department (SCID), Panti.

“Unfortunately, Mr Olanrewaju, the vigilante to whom Musiliu made the confession, passed away a few months after the murder and I have with me a copy of the obituary.’’

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Olanrewaju’s obituary was tendered at the court as evidence by the prosecution.

Justice Oluwatoyin Ipaye adjourned the case to April 21 and 27 for continuation of trial. (NAN)