This programme contains description of violent scenes.

Narrator: The world watched with surprise as soldiers fired live rounds towards protesters at the Lekki Toll Gate, epicentre of the EndSars protests in Lagos. But that was not the only place where protesters were brutally maimed and killed.

Millions of Nigerians poured out the streets across the country in October 2020, to protest against police brutality and bad governance. The protest was triggered by a viral video of a man being hounded by operatives of the now dissolved Special Anti Robbery Squad SARS. The police unit was notorious for profiling extorting and the extrajudicial killing of young Nigerians. So in October 2020, young Nigerian said they’ve had enough.

The protest started with a small group picketing Alausa, Ikeja, the seat of power in angels commercial capital, Lagos. The crowd rapidly spread to other parts of the country. But while the media paid attention to major hotspots like Lekki and Ikeja, happenings at Lagos most popular slum, Ajegunle were crowded out, burying the atrocities committed by governments packs of dogs and police officers. Investigative journalist Damilola banjo was in the community for two months after that infamous Tuesday to unravel who the thoughts are and how they are connected look political parties in the community

Resident: It was Kaka shooting people .It was Kaka who killed people in Ajegunle here.

Resident: It is Kaka our chairman use to during riots. He is the one he calls to come kill people.

Resident: It was Kaka who shot those bullets.

Resident: We heard it was Kaka who killed at the Canal.

Resident: It was not Kaka who shot at me. It was his boy called, Eba, who shot at me. Kaka had a gun with him and his boys had guns too.

[Gun shot]

Narrator: This is Merchant of Massacre. The story of how one man famously known as Kaka led officers of the Nigerian police force to clamp down on peaceful protesters in one of Lagos ghettos, Ajegunle.

DJ Olymbics: The shot tear gas first. The gas covered everywhere. It was after that they started shooting at us.

Narrator: That’s DJ Olympics. Olympics is not his real stage name. He was at the scene of the protests in Ajegunel. And one of the lucky survivors

DJ Olymic: I saw a bullet pierce me before I could think of what to do.

Narrator: DJ Olympics showed a wound on his right side. It was his crotch on his skin only layers away from his ribcage

DJ Olympic: WHen I heard the gunshot. The bullet hit me. when are you ready?

Reporter: Can I see?

DJ Olympic: The bullet also hit the window of a car. There were people already on the floor. You just thank God that you are alive. I saw a person who had been shot. His hand was twisted. I saw another person with a mangled jaw. You wouldn’t know who to save.

Narrator: DJ Olympics did not just want to save his life. He helped people. 19 year old Happiness Abraka is one of the people that disc jockey managed to get out of the fire Abraka was shot on the head. The bullets pierced his temple and touch through the left side and came out through the right. Banjo met Abraka and his mother in their one room apartment in Ajegunle.

Abraka: I was coming from an errand when I saw the protest. I did not know where the bullet came from. I was shot in the head and I fell. The boy helped put me in a corner. 

Reporter: I am so sorry this happened to you.

I’m so sorry. This happened to you.

Narrator: When Abraka was interviewed, the reporter had not yet met DJ Olympics. It was when the DJ saw the picture of Abraka trending on social media that he remembered the person in the photo.

Reporter: Did any of the people you rescue survive?

DJ Olympic: There was one but he did not see me.

Reporter: Tell me about this boy.

DJ Olympics: I saw the boy fell. I thought he just wanted to take cover like me but I saw him crawling. I saw his eyes were swollen. I encouraged him to keep crawling back. WHen the gunshot stopped, I took his to an uncompleted building for cover.

Moshood: The hospital ask them to come back tomoorw. They had to do brain scan again. It was from the result I discovered he had lost of vision. Gunshot injury to both eyes.

Narrator: That Moshood Oshufunrinwa. A youth rights campaign activist.

Reporter: How do you move around now?

Abraka: I have mastered my surroundings, especially this passage.

Narrator: As horrific as Abraka story is he was blessed by the courage of DJ Olympics and the generosity of feminist Coalition, a group of young women who raised most of the funds that kept the engine of the protest running until it was grounded by thugs like Kaka. Feminist coalition gave a raucous family 150,000 Naira, which was used to procure medical care for him.

Another teenage boy James Yaya was not so lucky. He was shocked by kaka and his men Yaya was standing in front of his house when protesters trying to seek cover from kaka and his men ran into his straight yeah took a bullet to the thigh at close proximity so the masked man

Yaya: It was not Kaka who shot. It was one of his boys called Eba. Kaka had gun and his boys had guns too. As I was trying to run back into the house. One of the boys shot at me.

Narrator: Yaya’s father could not afford to give his son proper health care. He took him to a traditional medical centre where the bullet lodged in his thigh was removed. Yaya was brought home to heal from the bullet wound but he never did. He died a few weeks after in the same room where Banjo had interviewed him and his father

Mama Winifred: We were playing here when he got a visitor.

Narrator: That’s mama Winifred, a neighbour to Celestine Godwin, another man killed during the endsars protests in Ajegunle. She did not give her name because she fears she might become a target.

Mama WInifred: It was Godwin warning us not to go anywhere during the protest. We were outside with my husband. The he had a visitor and escorted the visitor out. Shortly after, someone came to tell us he had been shot.

Narrator: That was the last time anyone heard from Godwin. The next they knew he had been killed by a stray bullet.

Narrator: Someone told us his phone was ringing with him in the floor. He recognised him and came to tell us that our brother had been shot. It was in the evening at about 4:15pm. It was like a joke.

Narrator: Augustine Ajero found out about the death of his younger brother Onyenkachukwu the same way the Godwin’s family did.

Ajero: At about 4pm or 5pm, my junior sister broke the news to me that our brother had been shot.

Narrator: When both families rushed to where their siblings were they met lifeless bodies. Blessing is Celestin’s sister. She believes that Kaka was the one who killed her brother.

Blessing: It was Kaka who shot. My firend’s mother who lived there said she saw the incident. He had been shot for hours that we did not know.

Narrator: Banjo interviewed several victims and their relatives. All fingers point to one man Kaka, born ask Kazeem Morufu. The mastermind of the attack on peaceful demonstrators in Ajegunle is held at the local government administering the ghetto as Alhaji. A man most residency is the right hand person to Fathai Ayoola, chairman ofAjeromi Ifelodun local government area. The name Kaka sends shivers down spines Ajegunle. But who exactly is this man?

Reporter: Is Kaka a policeman.

Razak Oluwa: He is a member of the OPC [Odua People’s Congress] He is the CSO and Area commander for the OPC

Reporter: In the whole of Ajeromi? Tell me about Kaka. Who is he in the community?

If there is a raiot now, he is the one the chairman use to quell the riot.= because he is the one who can kill and shot at people. He is the bodyguard of our chairman.

Narrator: The last two voices belong to relatives of victims killed during the protest. The first is Razak Oluwa describing Kaka as the chief security officer to the local government chairman and the area commander of the vigilante wing of youruba nationalist group Odudua Peoples Congress.

Oluwa’s brother was killed on October 2020. I will come back to him. The second voice is Stanley Godwin, older brother to Celestin. DG Olympics residents and other witnesses interviewed all accused kaka of leading the assault on peaceful protesters on October 20. Police source who asked not to be named for fear of losing his job confirmed that caca led the attack. Banjo put the claims to Ayola.

My name is Ayoola Fatai, the executive chairman of Ajeromi Ifelodun local governments in Ajegunle.

Reporter: Is it true that a person called Mr. Kaka is also your CSO?

14:02

Fatai: He is not my CSO. He is one of the OPC strong men that works in collaboration with the Nigerian police force to abate crime. That is all he does. And he also is the woman that is in charge of watching over all the hotels of Ndokua in this community, and Ndokwua has a number of hotels. So that is his job. If he is found wanton, the law will take its course.  Nobody is hiding anybody.

Narrator: Ayoola’s denial of Kaka as he CSO contradicts what Michael Ojobaro, the youth leader in the local government, knows to be true. Banjo spoke for him in a noisy bar.

Ojobaro: My name is comerade Mochael Ojobaro. I am the youth leader at Ajeromi Ifelodun local government.

Reporter: DO you work with him?

Ojobaro: They all work with me. He is the CSO to the party chairman. And I coordinate the security of the local government.

Narrator: As Kaka and his men were shooting at protesters, miscreants took advantage of the chaos. They looted the Secretariat and set vehicles on fire. Those are the scenes were not the ones getting shot at. It was peaceful demonstrators that were distanced from the arson and they were getting gunned down.

Ojobaro: People won’t talk about the arson.

Reporter: WHat happened in 2016?

Ojobaro: There was a convention. APC convention. Two people died. This time around, the chairman did not want anyone to die. That was why he did not give any directive.

Narrator: Ojobaro is alluding to an odious event that took place on the day the Council Chair Ayoola won his party’s primary election. Kaka and his men reportedly killed two people during the debacle. What’s happened in the aftermath reaffirms Kaka profile as a highly connected power player. The case was buried, never reaching court, and according to close sources, the family was bribed to keep mom.

In another incident three years ago, punch newspaper reported that a security guard Jessie Ononiba was murdered in July 2018. According to the report, Jesse’s elder brother Chukwunedu told the newspaper that no one wanted to give him the real name of Kaka, the ringleader of the gang that murdered his brother. That was the first time any of Kaka’s atrocities was reported by a newspaper.

Oshunfunrinwa: Nigeria is the lawless states, so therefore, Kaka may never get arrested as a result of his usefulness to the local government chairman and the APC at large

Narrator: that is Moshood Oshufunrinwa. During this investigation, Banjo obtained a video of Kaka wielding a gun and shooting in broad daylight. In the video, Kaka is seen with a gun wrapped in sack and he henchmen is beside him with a muzzle loader. Open Source verification of the video painted the location at Oyegunle Street in Ajegunle.

[Gun shot]

Narrator: All our attempts to reach Kaka failed. Ojobaro and the detail around the chairman walled Kaka from speaking to Banjo. When Kaka was seen at the local government Secretariat. The personal assistants to Ayoola said he was not allowed to speak to the media.

[Reporter and Ayoola]

Narrator: Victims as well as the police has confirmed that kaka and his men are in possession of firearms. The audio clip of the video you heard earlier is another confirmation that kaka is in possession of at least one and lethal weapon. Remember Razak Oluwa. His brother was killed on October 20 last year. By his account, Kaka and his men dumped Asumo Oluwa’s corpse and that are five others in the canal. Earlier in the day, Asumo received three bullets wounds from a muzzle loader. He was returning from getting the pellets out of his body in his mother’s house, but never made it home to his wife and daughters.

Reporter: Is Mr. Asumo your brother? How did it happen?

Oluwa: On October 30, I was at work when I heard Asumo had joined the protesters. I came back home to take him to were the bullets was removed. I went back to work where we were protecting police station.

Reporter: How did you know it was Kaka?

Razak: The next morning when I heard that my brother’s corpse had been thrown into the Canal. We met Kaka and his boys who attacked us with guns.

Narrator: Razak was shot at when he tried to confront Kaka over the death of his brither. He was shot by Dugbe, one of Kaka’s boys. This is a clip of Razzaq, a member of the infamous National Union of Road Transport Workers removing metallic balls from his body with the help of his friends.

[Razak writhing in pain and narrating thing to his friends.]

Narrator: Razzaq and other residents of Ajegunle have no hope of finding justice for their deceased loved ones killed by kaka and his men, more despairingly, they do not believe that caca would ever be held accountable for his past crimes.

Blessing: We do not have any relative in Lagos. We do not have anyone to run to so we have accepted our fate.

Ajero: Anyone who killed my brother will never find rest.

Narrator: You have been listening to merchant of Masaka. The documentary was jointly produced by Damilola banjo, and Kelechukwu Ogu with support from Tiger eye foundation.