Toll gate: Dentist mummy packs son’s luggage after armed men try to hush up fatal car accident

Media playback is not supported on this device His father and family bring him home

Dental student Samson Jones was jogging with his father in Lagos when his run ended in horror.

“There was nothing strange about his story, we had arranged the last meal with my wife before he left home. He was very normal, it was the morning that got him,” his father Samuel said.

Shortly after 11:00am on 20 August, 2016 a member of the Lekki toll gate road patrols demanded his father to pay. His father made a call and told them all was clear – but when he pulled out a money box containing $300 (3,600 euros), the guards responded in severity.

After losing control, Sammy chased the guards to his father’s car, terrified the guards were going to attack him as well.

“Two of them cornered me, even when they had my son by the neck, I told them his name, even if I had the power I would have given him his medical advice, but his name, his age and his pedigree – I asked them not to kill him,” Sammy said.

The guards seized the phone of Sammy’s wife who had dialed 9-1-1. Moments later, she heard shots.

Samson was rushed to the University College Hospital in Ibadan in central Nigeria, an 80-minute drive away.

Months later he died.

Sammy received a plastic note from the toll gate informing him his son died of multiple organ failure and stress.

“I was told he died because of the pains he was under from the toll gate,” Sammy said.

I told them his name, his age and his pedigree – I asked them not to kill him

Contacted for comment, Lagos Police Public Relations Officer Hassan Arogundade said they had no knowledge of any case involving Samuel Jones’s son.

The toll gate has been caught in the crossfire of multiple high-profile criminal trials in the area.

In March 2017, the Lagos division of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) prosecuted a businessman for bribery in relation to three individuals employed by the toll gate.

In December 2016, taxi driver Adebayo Olosun, who was later convicted for kidnapping and other charges, was approached by one of the toll gate guards for a bribe.

Adebayo turned down the agent’s request – believing he owed the toll gate some money – and according to Olosun, the guard threatened to harm him, his wife and child.

“He (the toll gate agent) was in shock, he was very shocked by my response and said the next time he was going to be hit in the head with a machete,” Olosun, who was a taxi driver at the time, said.

Still traumatised, Olosun fled to his house in Lekki, a suburb of Lagos which hosts an apartment complex named Megaukhi House which has attracted VIPs to its luxury swimming pool and golf course, which the developer is offering as a property development project.

In July 2017, singer Ali Kiba was detained by Lagos State High Court in Benin City for failing to pay a toll gate agent a payment of 2.2 million naira ($5,900, £4,000).

Magistrate Grace Agbo, who oversaw the hearing of the case, said that Ali Kiba, whose real name is Gregory Mogbaji, had avoided paying the toll for seven years.

Shola Omolebo, Ali Kiba’s lawyer, told the BBC: “There was no payment by Ali Kiba and I’m going to take this case further.

“The matter will go to the Nigerian high court where we’ll challenge the certificate of registration of the toll gate company.

“We don’t want to be blackmailed for these illegal fees. We don’t want to go there (to the court) without being able to prove our case,” Omolebo said.

Seemingly emboldened by the success of their case, Ali Kiba’s lawyers also contacted the Lagos State toll gate on the same day the magistrate hearing the case handed down her judgment.

Magistrate Agbo ordered the fees to be paid but Ali Kiba’s lawyer said it was no guarantee the singer would be granted bail.

“Where is the justice in this? We’ve lost an invaluable son. We didn’t give in. I’m doing this for my client, who I love very much.

“I didn’t recognise the judge and she told me to give her a reason to grant bail,” Omolebo added.

Lekki toll gate said it would not comment on individual cases.

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