Panic erupted at Foodies Restaurant in Lagos on Friday after a young man identified as Khalid was brutally attacked by a group of suspected hoodlums in what witnesses described as a targeted assault linked to an alleged anti-Islam social media post.
When our correspondent arrived at the restaurant shortly after the incident, frightened customers and workers were still gathered outside discussing the attack, while blood stains were visible near the entrance where the victim reportedly collapsed after the beating.
According to eyewitnesses, Khalid had arrived at the restaurant with his mother shortly before the attack. The pair had barely settled down when a group of men stormed the premises and confronted him.
“They knew exactly who they were looking for,” a restaurant worker who witnessed the attack told our correspondent. “One of them pointed at him and shouted, ‘That’s him!’ Before anyone understood what was happening, they rushed him.”
The eyewitness said the attackers immediately descended on Khalid, punching and kicking him repeatedly as terrified customers fled for safety.
“They kept shouting that he was the one who insulted Islam. They did not come to argue with him. They came to beat him,” the witness said.
Another customer said Khalid attempted to shield himself but was overwhelmed by the number of attackers.
“They surrounded him. He fell to the ground within seconds, but they continued kicking him. It looked like they wanted to kill him. People were afraid to intervene because the attackers were many and extremely violent.”
Khalid’s mother was also caught in the violence while trying to rescue her son.
“She threw herself between them and begged them to stop,” another eyewitness said. “They shoved her violently and she fell hard to the ground. She was crying and screaming for help.”
By the time the attackers fled, Khalid was lying motionless on the ground with visible injuries across his body.
“He was barely responding,” a trader operating near the restaurant recalled. “His face was swollen, his clothes were torn and one of his legs looked badly damaged. Some people thought he had died.”
Good Samaritans quickly transported the victim to a nearby hospital, where medical personnel immediately commenced emergency treatment.
Hospital sources who spoke on condition of anonymity confirmed that Khalid sustained severe injuries consistent with a prolonged physical assault. Although doctors stabilised his condition, family members reportedly removed him from the hospital the following day over fears that he could be located by his attackers if he remained in the public facility.
Residents who spoke to our correspondent expressed shock over the brazen daylight attack, describing it as a disturbing escalation of threats that had allegedly followed an online controversy involving Khalid.
The latest incident comes only days after suspected hoodlums invaded a mosque in Agbado-Ishaga, vandalised property, assaulted the Chief Imam and demanded that Khalid be handed over to them.
As of press time, officials of the Lagos State Police Command had not released an official statement on Friday’s attack, and no arrests had been announced. Residents have called on security agencies to identify the assailants and bring them to justice before further violence occurs.