A mother of three has cried out for justice after she was brutally flogged by neigbhours in the Ikola area of Alimosho, a Lagos suburb, following a disagreement over the recharge of prepaid meter installed at their residence, reports KUNLE AKINRINADE.

A brutal scene unfolded at Paul Ekundayo Close, Diamond Estate, a middle class neighbourhood in Ikola, Alimosho, Lagos. The scene had the trappings of the Yoruba masquerade festival in which devotees flog bystanders in public.

On this occasion, however, there were no festivities. Rather, it was an aggressive scene wherein a woman and two young men said to be her sons descended on a female neighbour and mother of three, Ms Eniola Agboola.

Eniola and two of her children who both shared in the flogging, had cried and shouted for help but got none as the flogging which started at nightfall continued until her attackers felt satisfied and bolted.

The flogging was a culmination of domestic disagreements that had simmered among the occupants of the building in the last few months. What began as agitation over lack of openness in the handling of a prepaid meter shared by four occupants of the building and three traders at the shops located at the entrance of the house had snowballed into mutual mistrust.

It reached a climax on Christmas eve after the neighbour and her children stormed Eniola’s apartment with canes and flogged her and her children mercilessly.

“The incident happened around 8.30pm on December 24, 2025 while I was trying to clean my corridor in preparation for the Christmas celebration the next day,” Eniola had said as she writhed in pains.

“I wanted to remove my youngest son’s bicycle from the corridor of my apartment when my neighbour, Ms Ronke Olanrewaju, her daughter Wunmi and her son, Dare Olanrewaju appeared and splashed water on me.

“As I was about to protest, they yelled at me and accused me of pouring water on them earlier, then they brought out canes.

“I ran into my apartment but they smashed my door with a big stone and subjected me to brutal flogging.

“They stripped me and dragged me on the floor inside my parlour and continued to flog me until they were satisfied.

“They then left me to lick my wounds as blood started gushing out of my wounded body.

“Even my daughters were not spared, as they were flogged too until they sustained injuries from the beating.

“I was rushed to a hospital for treatment that night and my children also received treatment for the injuries they sustained from the beating.

“I reported the case at the Meiran Police Division and they were arrested on December 24 but released on December 27.

“The matter also drew the attention of a community leader in Ikola, who mediated and blamed the woman for her reckless and brutal attack on me and my children.

“Ms Olanrewaju later sent N200,000 to me as compensation when I insisted on pressing for justice. I declined the offer of monetary compensation for a brutal assault she meted out to me and my family.”

Recalling the events that led to the brutal assault, Eniola said she was a victim of conspiracy following her outspokenness about the management of the prepaid meter installed in the building.

She said: “I moved into the building in 2023, and we have a prepaid meter that serves five apartments and four shops.

“We were taking turns to recharge the meter, and every recharge was to last a month.

“However, she does not load the meter as and when due. It was discovered that every recharge she did lasted just three days.

“Other occupants became worried and asked that I speak with her to show the receipt of the electricity token purchased.

“I did as mandated and she became angry that I requested the receipts for the recharge she did on the prepaid meter.

“She was also fond of sending my daughters on errands while her own children were at home doing nothing.

“She subsequently got the support of some of the tenant, who have since subjected me and my children to verbal insults and diabolical jokes.

“They called me all sort of names like olosho, asewo (prostitute), among others, but I did not respond to their insults.

“One of them, Ms Faith Omoshe, who sells groceries in a shop in the building, used a chair to block the entrance to the pathway to my apartment and I removed the chair, leading to her biting off my hand in April 2025.

“I reported the case at the Meiran Police Division where she was detained and made to sign an undertaking that she would never attack me again.

“Yet, it was she that ganged up with Ms Olanrewaju to attack me by blocking the exit door to prevent me from running outside while the flogging lasted.

“Although she was arrested too, she was later released and has since locked her shop and has not been seen.

“She told the police that she travelled out of Lagos, perhaps for the yuletide.”

The 44-year-old victim explained that she resorted to demanding for justice when the alleged culprits failed to honour the terms of a truce brokered by some community leaders.

“They damaged my doors and stole my smart phones worth N1.5 million and have been telling people around how they dealt with me mercilessly by logging me and my children, boasting that there was nothing anyone could do to them.

“They have refused to honour the terms of an intervention by some community leaders, including the Baale of Ikola.

“The community leaders tried to intervene to discourage me from pressing for justice, and they asked the woman to pay the sum of N1.5 million being the cost of the smart phones they took away and other damages they did at the scene.

“Instead, they dropped N200,000, which I have since rejected.

“They have refused to visit the police station despite several invitations and they have also refused to pick the N200,000 they dropped for my treatment and the phone they took away after I rejected monetary compensation.

“They have also failed to honour several invitations by the Lagos State Domestic and Sexual Violence Agency, a state-owned parastatal with the mandate to handle incidents of sexual and domestic assaults.

“All I want is justice, because the brutal assault was premeditated and it shows in the manner it was executed by the woman, her children and collaborators.

“As I speak, my body still aches from the floggings that left me with wounds, swollen face and dislocated joints.”

A footage sighted by our correspondent showed moments Eniola was being brutalised by the alleged culprits. In the video, Eniola was seen being dragged on the floor while a woman holding canes and boy warned, “run whenever you see my mother, run when you see my mother” while the victim’s daughter was crying for help.

The police spokesperson for the Lagos Command, Ms Abimbola Adebisi, was contacted for response, but at press time, she had not responded to an inquiry our correspondent sent to her mobile phone.

Efforts made by the reporter to get Ms Olanrewaju’s response yielded no result.

A visit our correspondent made to a building identified as her tailoring shop in the Ikola neighbourhood on Thursday and Friday did not yield fruits as the shop was locked in the early part of Thursday.

The people who spoke with the reporter around the site of the shop also declined to give out her phone number when he visited again on Friday.

In a WhatsApp chat with the Public Relations Officer of the Lagos State Police Command, Mrs Abimbola Adebisi, a Superintendent of Police (SP), she quoted the Meiran Divisional Police Officer, Oluwakemi Adegboye, as saying that a case of assault occasioning harm was reported on December 28, 2025 by one Eniola Oladapo (f) against Olanrewaju Oluronke (f) and others.

“The victim went on agreement of collection of N500,000 from the suspect without the consent of police. Unfortunately, N200,000 was given with promise of paying the balance of N300,000 in the middle of February 2026,” the DPO said.

Asked the current status of the case, the DPO said: “Our last discussion with the victim was that she wanted to go and refund the money she collected in order to charge the case to court.” (The Nation)

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