Another Lagos landlord sets tenant ablaze over toilet dispute

A few days after a landlady purportedly set the son of her tenant on fire in the Ajegunle area of Lagos, another landlord in the Idumota, Lagos Island area of the state, Sola Solomon, has allegedly set fire to one of his tenants, identified as Abeeb, during an argument over the use of the toilet in the compound in the night of Monday, August 24.

Not done with just setting the young man ablaze, the 67-year-old landlord pushed the father of one, to his death from the top floor of the three-storey building.

It was gathered that the deceased had not spent up to five months in the house located on Iga Idunganran Street, Idumota, when he was killed by his landlord during a disagreement over the use of the compound toilet.

A tenant in the house who did not want his name mentioned for fear of victimisation, explained that the quarrel between the two had been settled in the evening and other tenants had been pleading with both parties to maintain the peace.

Everything appeared to have calmed down but no one knew that the landlord, an indigene of Ondo State, had another plan in mind as he reportedly bought fuel and waited for his tenant to come back from watching the Arsenal versus Liverpool EPL match on that night.

At about 12 am, the landlord allegedly poured the petrol along the passageway of the house and knocked on the door of the deceased.

The continuous knock on the door was said to have forced Abeeb out to confront the intruder, only to see the landlord with a container of fuel and as he made to dash back into his room, the man emptied the fuel on his body and threw a lighted fire at him.

The tenant narrated the incident that led to the disaster:

“Before the incident of Monday, there had been a quarrel in the house over the use of the toilet.

Everybody had complained that the landlord always messed up the toilet after use. But on that day, he had another quarrel with Abeeb over the use of the toilet. During the argument, he threatened to set the man ablaze; the man also dared him.

I called Abeeb and calmed him down; I also called the landlord and appealed to him to let the matter go, and he said he had forgiven Abeeb.

The landlord was seen in the evening going to buy fuel and it was in the middle of the night that he carried out his threat. He went to Abeeb's apartment on the third floor of the house, and knocked on the door after he had poured the petrol on the passage.

As he stepped out of the room, the landlord poured the petrol on him and before Abeeb could snatch the jerry can from him, the landlord had ignited fire with a lighter in his hand.

Abeeb struggled to put out the fire, but the landlord pushed him down from the third floor. He fell to the ground and died.”

The other tenants in the house were said to have abandoned the building and fled for fear of being killed.

Policemen from the Adeniji Adele Police Division later arrived at the scene to remove Abeeb’s corpse while the landlord who also sustained burn injuries to the hospital.