The experience still sends shivers down his spine. Billionaire lotto magnate, Chief Adebutu Kessington, may still be ruing why he opted to live in Ikoyi after a horrid experience last April.
It was in the early days of the lockdown sanctioned by President Muhammadu Buhari to combat the spread of the dreaded coronavirus pandemic. People could not move about in search of their daily bread. Hunger was in the land. Everybody seemed to be on the edge. And everybody was a target for those desperately seeking what to eat. For the moneyed residents of Ikoyi who thought they were safe in their fortresses, the experience of Baba Ijebu, as he is popularly known, was a reality check of a sort.
According to those who know, one of the domestic staff of the octogenarian tested positive for COVID-19. When health workers came to evacuate him from the house, the gates of the mansion were flung open for the health officials. Unbeknownst to the occupiers, that was all the invitation that touts who had laid siege on every corner in the neighbourhood were waiting for. As soon as the gates were opened, they stormed in and went from room to room carting valuables and food items, everything in sight.
The presence of fully-armed policemen who guard the house round-the-clock did not deter the boys numbering about 40. Survival was what they were out for and they would not miss an opportunity to run a tram through a billionaire’s house. Neighbours quickly locked their gates and peeped from the safety of their windows, hearts in their mouths.
According to sources, the policemen threatened to shoot but they were reasonable enough to hold back as the daredevil boys were ready for bloodshed. At the end of the inauspicious visit, the home was stripped almost bare but no casualty was recorded. Sources could not confirm whether the billionaire owner was around when the incident happened but that the experience left him in jitters.
