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Man wanted in connection with Qayyum Balogun stabbing believed to have fled country

Two people arrested following death of student (21) on Clarendon Street after gig on Grafton Street

Gardaí investigating the fatal stabbing of Qayyum Balogun (21) last weekend have sought assistance from the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) and police in Britain as one of the suspects is believed to have fled the jurisdiction.

Two people, a man and a woman, both in their 20s, were in Garda custody on Wednesday.

The woman was released without charge later on the same day pending a file to the Director of Public Prosecutions. The Garda said on Thursday that the man, who was arrested on Wednesday, remains in custody.

Sources said very significant progress has been made in the investigation.

The woman was detained on Tuesday and is the partner of a person of interest in the case, who has previously come to the attention of gardaí for knife crime. Gardaí believe she has important information to share and suspect she may have aided her partner in leaving the Republic.

He is believed to have made his way to Northern Ireland after the attack before travelling on to Britain by ferry. Gardaí contacted the PSNI in a bid to confirm information about his movements. Assistance was also being sought from British police as part of efforts to trace the man’s movements after he arrived there.

Teslimot Balogun, Qayyum’s mother, described her son as “a very funny guy” who was “always friendly, very quiet, easy going”.

Gardaí investigating his killing have conducted a search of a property in Dublin 4 and seized items for analysis, including some believed to contain blood. That apartment was rented via Airbnb by people attending a concert on Grafton Street on Sunday night, into early Monday, when the killing took place.

Detectives have ruled out a racial motive for the killing and are trying to determine whether Balogun knew his killer, or at least moved in the same social circles, based on the African music scene in Dublin.

A Maynooth University student who also promoted gigs, Balogun was from a Nigerian family based in Dundalk, Co Louth. He had lived in Ireland for years.

He would have turned 22 in September and was due to begin his final year of computer science at Maynooth. He did his Leaving Certificate in Ó Fiaich College, Dundalk, before studying business and computing at the Ó Fiaich Institute of Further Education.

He appears to have been singled out for attack after a melee involving a large group of people erupted on Grafton Street in the early hours of Monday. At the time a crowd was leaving a gig by Nigerian artist Famous Pluto in Bewley’s Café, which Balogun had attended.

He was assaulted and wounded on Grafton Street before running into Johnson’s Court and on to Clarendon Street, where he was fatally stabbed and collapsed. He was taken by ambulance to St James’s Hospital, where he was pronounced dead shortly after arrival.

A knife has been recovered since the investigation began and was being examined in a bid to determine whether it was used to inflict any of the wounds Balogun sustained.

Destiny Enogieru, one of three men gardaí want to interview is on bail for alleged serious assaults. The precise detail of the allegations against him, including the date and location of the alleged offences, cannot be set out for legal reasons.

The same man had previously been convicted of possessing a knife and has other convictions, including for assault and theft. He has also served a prison sentence for possession of drugs, including cocaine, with intent to sell or supply.

https://www.irishtimes.com/crime-law/2026/06/03/two-arrested-in-connection-with-fatal-stabbing-of-qayyum-balogun-in-dublin-city-centre/

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5871135&forum_id=2E#49915785)