Key points

• Azeez was beaten to death on August 3 by suspected cultists who were reportedly his friends
• The dispute started after a phone went missing at a birthday party the night before
• An anti-cultism platform alleged that a cult leader gave Azeez the phone and then denied it, triggering the fatal attack

A young man identified simply as Azeez has been beaten to death by suspected cultists in the Oko-Oba area of Agege, Lagos, after a disagreement over a missing phone that began at a birthday party, a police source has told Punch Metro.

The incident occurred on Monday, August 3. According to the source, Azeez got into an argument with some colleagues over a phone that went missing after they attended a party together.

The argument turned violent when some of the suspected cultists, said to be his friends, attacked him. He later died from the injuries he sustained.

Dispute began at birthday party on the night of August 2

Anti-cultism platform Naija Confra provided additional details in a post on Saturday, saying the trouble started during a birthday celebration on the night of Sunday, August 2.

According to the platform, a fight broke out at the event, during which a man identified as Abela allegedly picked up a phone and handed it to Azeez to keep.

When the phone’s owner began looking for it and found it in Azeez’s possession, Azeez told him that Abela had given it to him. Abela, however, denied this in front of witnesses.

Naija Confra alleged that Abela is a leader in the Neo-Black Movement and a senior figure to Azeez, which it said made his denial particularly damaging.

Unable or unwilling to confront Abela directly, the phone owner and his friends attacked Azeez at the party before leaving.

Azeez confronted Abela and was taken away and killed

After the party, Azeez confronted Abela over the denial. The confrontation led to another argument. Naija Confra alleged that suspected members of the Neo-Black Movement then took Azeez to a separate location, where the fatal assault was carried out.

The Lagos State Police Public Relations Officer, Abimbola Adebisi, could not be reached for comment. Calls to her phone lines went unanswered, and a text message sent to her had not been replied to at the time this report was filed.