In 2013, the Centre for Disease control
published that the number of deaths caused by firearms in the United
States was 32,351. Ten persons out of 100,000 were being smoked by gun
violence in most inner cities and urban territories of America. The CDC
is located in Atlanta. Atlanta is the ninth largest metropolitan area in
United States with population exceeding five million. It’s the crème de
la soul of Southern United States, established in 1837. Atlanta is the
capital of Georgia State.
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It is one of the most enchanting and
diversified Southern cities, very appealing with comfort, warmth and
opportunities, a city that despite its grandiose bubbles, still
struggles with diversity. Yet, it welcomes the world to its life on the
metropolis, hence, a destination for immigrants seeking love, happiness
and in pursuit of life and liberty.
Late Afolabi Andrew Odifa relocated from
Raleigh, North Carolina to Atlanta, in search of southern comfort, in
January. He died last week from a gunshot to the head three miles from
his apartment. Eight years ago, he left Lagos, Nigeria in search of the
American dream of great life and happiness. He attended Ibadan
Polytechnic and after graduation, returned to Lagos seeking employment.
Lagos was hopeless. Life was extremely frustrating for a young graduate.
Afolabi would hustle from sun up to sundown seeking employment and
anything legal to make ends meet. His best hustles were not enough. He
was determined to provide for his new wife, Oluwatoyin Odifa, a
neighbourhood girl he met along the alleys of their neighbourhood and
fell in love with.
Oluwatoyin, sat on her couch inside their
apartment , rocking their nine-month-old son on her laps, tears stream
from her eyes as she remembered how her late husband met her. “We were
always hanging out together. I liked him the first time he approached me
in our neighbourhood. That quickly developed into a serious
relationship. We became inseparable, always staying together, especially
when he returned from his daily hustles in the evenings, he would come
over our place and stayed with me till late evenings. We shared a dream
and planned our future together. We would sit by the pavement in our
yard and wished upon the stars. We prayed, planned and wished to sail
into a better world, in each other’s arms”.
That prayer to sail on to best places in
life was answered in 2008 when Afolabi moved to the United States,
promising his wife that he would return for her after he settled in the
land where dreams came through and opportunities were plenty. Afolabi
went through the challenges of new life in an organised society. He
engaged in any available jobs, determined to work harder to fulfill his
promise to his new wife he left back in Lagos .
February 2013, Afolabi travelled to
Nigeria to visit his wife and other members of his family. He had been
granted legal authorisation. “It was magical to see my husband home
then. I was very happy to have him in my arms again. I missed him.” The
visit resulted in pregnancy for Oluwatoyin: at last, she was going to be
a mother: “Every woman desired that moment when the one you love so
dearly put you in that special place of a treasured lifetime”.
The Odifas expected their first child in
October, but because of pregnancy complications, the baby delayed
arrival for few weeks. Afolabi came from US for the birth of his first
child. The baby was born on November 19, 2013. “ He was so happy to be a
father. He said he would not leave us behind that we would all return
with him to United States.”
Six weeks after the birth of their son,
Afolabi travelled to his Atlanta base with his new family, in January
2014. He initially got a job as a factory worker in one of Atlanta’s
processing food factories: “I became a house wife nursing our new born
baby while he worked hard to provide for us. I didn’t know I would only
have him for seven months.”
In June, Afolabi quit his factory job to
become a taxi cab driver in the city of Atlanta. On August 16, while
waiting for his fare inside an apartment complex, Afolabi was fatally
shot by a 23-year-old man. The man allegedly stole his credit card and
fled.
Oluwatoyin remembered the last hours
before he left their apartment the night of his death.” He was home most
of the day. He had gone out earlier and returned sometimes after 6p.m,
complaining of headache. He said he wanted to lie down for few hours.
About 10.37 p.m his cell phone rang. He told me that he just got a fare
and he would do the fare and returned home to be with us.” I won’t be
long,” he said before he walked out of the door. That was the last time I
saw my husband alive. The last time I heard his voice and the last time
he stood in my presence affectionately telling me he would be back.
“The next morning, I got a call from the Police to come and identify my
dead husband’s body… My world collapsed. It was horrible. I never in a
million years thought I would go through this. He was killed while
making honest living to take care of me and our child. I don’t know
where to go and what to do. Friends and family are meeting, trying to
assist with burial logistics and arrangement. I can’t afford the cost of
taking his remains to his hometown, Isua Akoko, in Ondo State. We would
raise funds here and bury him in Atlanta. This wasn’t our fairytale
dream… it wasn’t the way we planned to end our union. He always told me
that he would live for 120 years so he might enjoy and love me till the
end with our children, then when I’m older, he would return to God, my
children and I would bury him.Its heart breaking. It wasn’t supposed to
end this horrible and gory way.”
Norcross, Georgia Police said that Late
Mr. Afolabi Odifa, 36, was shot and killed:“The cab driver parked at the
apartment complex for a few hours before anyone noticed, in the middle
of the drive. “A couple of the residents did notice him,” said Norcross
Police Captain Bill Grogan, “they thought he was intoxicated or asleep.
“It wasn’t until a resident noticed him slumping over the wheel, not
moving, that police were called. Odifa lived on Sunrise Village Lane in
Norcross, about three miles from the scene of his murder.”
On Monday, Georgia Bureau of
Investigations announced it had arrested Adam Matthew Pfeifer, 23, and
charged him with murder. “Pfeifer was originally arrested on Aug. 18,
two days after Afolabi was found dead inside his taxi at the Spring Lake
Apartments. At that point, the Norcross resident was charged only with
credit card fraud.
“But GBI spokeswoman Sherry Lang said
Monday that several far more serious charges had been added to Pfeifer’s
booking sheet — namely murder, armed robbery, possession of a firearm
during the commission of a felony and participation in criminal gang
activity.
Lang did not release any further details
regarding the case. Norcross police were called to the apartment complex
off Chase Common Drive at about 3 a.m. on Aug. 16. They reportedly
found Odifa, who worked for ATL Taxi, slumped over in his car and shot
at least once. A 911 caller told police the vehicle had been in the
parking lot for a couple of hours.
A specific motive for Odifa’s murder not
been released, though the charges filed against Pfeifer indicate a
robbery took place. Norcross police Capt. Bill Grogan said Pfeifer’s
original arrest was wholly unrelated to the murder. The fraud charges
stemmed from Pfeifer being suspected of stealing about $3,000 from his
brother’s bank account earlier this year. ATM video from the bank showed
Adam Pfeifer took the money out of his brother’s account,” Grogan
said.Prior to additional charges being filed, Pfeifer was being held
without bond in the Gwinnett County jail. It was unclear how long he had
been a suspect in Odifa’s murder.
“Jebose, my husband was everything for
the family. He was such a wonderful human being, very caring and always
sacrificing the little that we were blessed with to help anyone. We came
to America to build a great life, we were a young, determined family,
praying to live and make something great from this opportunity. The
opportunity has turned into a nightmare for me and my nine month old
son. Whose shoulders are we going to lean on?. It was the three of us
that planned our world, now I am left here, with my infant son to mourn
my dearest husband, shot in the line of duty. He was only trying so hard
to provide for his family. I don’t know how to explain to my son that
his father will never return. He told me when he was walking out of the
door that he would be back shortly: He will never return. My heart is
aching. I don’t know if I can survive this horror, Jebose”
-Punch
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