A 53-year-old hotelier, Kingsley Enageghe, has been arrested by the Police in Lagos for allegedly shooting a guest at Queens Victory Guest hotel located at Olaonikaju close, off Ijesha bus stop.
The bullet which pierced through the victim, Kelvin Nwabunor’s thigh, also hit the barman and Nwabunor’s friend in the legs
Trouble, as gathered, started during an argument between Nwabuno, 35 and Enageghe, who is the Director of Queens Victory hotel, over the former’s delay in paying for an extra day.
Explaining what led to the shooting, the bar attendant, Charles Edet, said Nwabunor paid for three days of lodge but stayed for four days, without renewing payment for the lodge.
When accosted, he said Nwabunor told him he was expecting money from someone.
According to Edet, “ the owner of the hotel told me to go and move his things out, but on getting to the room, I told him politely. But he told me that he would renew his payment and also pay for extra days, and that I should hold on for him because he was expecting some money to drop into his account.
“I told him to go and explain to the owner of the hotel. His friend accompanied him and my boss accepted.
“After some hours, he withdrew the money and gave it to my boss. Later, the guest called my boss to complain that the television in his room had not been working since he checked in. He requested that it should be changed since he had paid for extra days.
I heard both of them exchanging banters. The owner of the hotel called me and instructed me to lock their room and chase them out, but I could not. He came back furious and asked after the guest. Both of them started pushing each other. Immediately, my boss went inside his office and came out with a gun.
“He shot at the guest. Unfortunately for me, the bullet hit me in the leg because I stood in between my boss and the guest, trying to calm my boss. It also hit the guest’s friend, Animashaun Abdullahi, in the leg”
Nwabuno’s account
On his part, Nwabuno said he lodged in the hotel on January 3,2023, alone and paid for the lodge via transfer.
He added that when he appealed to the hotelier to hold on till 4 pm,on the fourth day, for him to receive some money to pay for the extra one day, the owner refused, stating rather, that the new law was that every customer should pay before noon.
Narrating, he said, ” I went back upstairs. By then my wife and child were already with me.
“My wife came visiting with my eight-month-old son. So, I asked my friend Abdullahi to help me pacify the director to wait till 4 pm. He agreed and gave us back the room key.
“By 4 pm, the cash I was expecting came in. I went to the ATM to withdraw some money, only to receive a call that the director had sent my family out and locked the door. I rushed down to the hotel. The amount in question was N4500, but I paid N9,000, for an additional extra day to avoid embarrassment.
It was after payment that I told the bar attendant to go inform the director that my television had not been working. But he did not answer the staff, so I went to him to plead with him to make repairs on the television, he said that I should never tell him what to do.
“He started insulting me and I insulted him too. He gave me back my money and told me to leave his hotel. I was going upstairs with my wife, son, friend and a staff member of the hotel to get my luggage when he approached me from behind, with a gun.
“He pushed me and I pushed him back. The next thing he did was to cock the gun, moved backwards and threatened to shoot. He pulled the trigger, and a bullet hit me in the thigh. My friend Abdullahi and a staff member of the hotel were also hit by the bullet.
“Fortunately the bullet did not hit my wife and my baby,”.
Doctor’s Account
Dr Hassan Ademola of Iwalewa Hospital told Vanguard that when the patients were brought with gun wounds, he alerted the police for permission to treat them.
He said:“We went for multiple x-rays which revealed that the bullet passed through their legs. We were able to remove the bullets which were shown to the police officer that came into the theatre with me.
When Vanguard arrived at the hotel premises, the building had been sealed.
A staff of the hotel who spoke on the condition of anonymity disclosed that a near similar incident occurred on December 14, 2022, after a guest who lodged in one of the rooms hurriedly left to attend to an emergency. He was said to have explained to the owner of the hotel that his younger brother would come and lodge in his stead.
But when his younger brother came, he reportedly discovered that the room had been given out to another guest. An argument, according to the member of staff ensued, in the process of which he said his boss brought out his gun threatening to shoot at the guest.
“ My boss fired into the air. The man that came to lodge there hurriedly left without using the room”.
Confirming the incident to Vanguard, spokesperson for the Lagos State Police Command, SP Benjamin Hundeyin, said, “the suspect has been arrested and will be prosecuted as soon as investigation is concluded”
