Kwara: Hotel manager killed in brutal cult attack in Ilorin

Tragedy struck in Ilorin, Kwara state capital, Thursday night, when gunmen, suspected to be cult members brutally murdered the Manager of a hotel in the Olunlade area of the city. 

The victim, identified as Anthony Balogun, was shot at close range and then macheted to death in what appears to be a cult-related attack. 

According to sources at the hotel, the incident occurred around 8 p.m., when two gunmen entered the premises and requested to see the Manager. 

Balogun, who was running the hotel owned by his mother, was the target of the attack. 

The motive behind the killing is still unclear, but police are investigating the incident as a possible cult-related attack.

The deceased, thinking that they were prospective customers, came out of his room to meet them at the reception.

Then the assailants were said to have called him out of the reception and shot him at close range on the chest, the source said.

They were said to have further macheted him on the head, hands, and legs before they fled the area.

Speaking to our correspondent, the senior sister of the late hotelier, who did not want her name in print, confirmed the incident, saying that she had reported the incident to the police.

According to her, “I called him around 6:30 p.m., and at about 7pm he called me back, wanting to pass a piece of information to me. I told one of the children to pick the call that I would call him back as I was in the kitchen. 

“At about 8 p.m., I returned his call, but the phone had been switched off. I repeated it three times to no avail. 

“A few minutes later, the wife called me that I should come to the Kwara State General Hospital, now Kwara State University Teaching Hospital, Ilorin. 

“It was at the hospital I met his lifeless body, badly mutilated.”

A source at the Ganmo Divisional Police Station, Ilorin outskirt, where the case was reported, described the incident as a case of possible homicide.

Spokesperson of the state police command, Toun Ejire-Adeyemi, did not confirm the incident, as she failed to respond to messages on her WhatsApp.