A 32-year-old dispatch rider, Emmanuel Jegede, has died after suspected hoodlums allegedly pushed him off his motorcycle during an attempt to extort him along the Ikotun-Idimu Road in Alimosho Local Government Area of Lagos State.
The incident reportedly occurred around 10 a.m. on Wednesday shortly after the victim completed a delivery and was heading to another destination.
Eyewitnesses said the rider had reached the Alhaja area when two suspected hoodlums allegedly confronted him and pushed him while he was riding, causing him to lose control of the motorcycle.
According to a resident who witnessed the incident, the victim crashed into the road median and sustained fatal injuries before help could reach him.
"The two boys who usually stay around the junction tried to stop him. When he refused, they pushed him while he was still riding. He lost control and rammed into the median. People rushed to rescue him, but he died at the scene," the witness said.
Another eyewitness said the deceased had earlier been involved in a minor collision with a tricycle rider after emerging from a nearby street. The dispute was reportedly resolved by residents and some youths in the area.
The source, however, alleged that after settling the disagreement, the hoodlums demanded money from the dispatch rider as compensation for their intervention. When he explained that he had no money, they allegedly became angry.
"They asked him to settle them after resolving the issue, but he said he had no cash. They later crossed to the other side of the road, waited for him and pushed him as he rode past," the witness added.
Residents said the victim's chest struck a concrete culvert during the crash, resulting in his death, while the suspected attackers fled the scene immediately after the incident.
Operatives of the Idimu Police Division were later said to have evacuated the corpse and recovered the motorcycle.
Confirming the incident, the spokesperson for the Lagos State Police Command, SP Abimbola Adebisi, said investigators were working to establish the exact circumstances surrounding the rider's death.
She explained that the police received information about the incident from an officer of the Federal Road Safety Corps, who reported finding a corpse at the crash scene.
According to Adebisi, preliminary findings produced two different accounts of the incident.
She said one version indicated that the rider lost control while attempting to avoid a pedestrian crossing the road, while another suggested that some youths fled immediately after the crash, raising suspicion that the victim might have been attacked before the accident.
"The investigation is ongoing, and efforts are being made to obtain CCTV footage from the area to determine exactly what transpired," the police spokesperson said.
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