A season of murders
•Within a month, wife slaughters hubby, madman
beheaded, friend stabbed to death, wife beheaded for ritual and…
Photo:
Sun News Publishing
Mr and Mrs Akeem Agboola
Date:
Fri, 07/27/2012 - 19:27
Call it a harvest of the morbid, even heinous type. In the last one
month, Ekiti State, the “Land of Honour,” has recorded at least five
incidents of killing. One of them is suspected to be for rituals. All of
this has created serious apprehension among the people and concern to
government and security agencies.
The new Commissioner of Police in the state, Mr. Sotonye Wakama, had
barely settled down in office, when a female teacher, Mrs. Rafatu
Agboola, was nabbed for allegedly killing her husband. She is currently
detained at the police command headquarters in Ado-Ekiti.
The lady had submitted herself to the police in Usi-Ekiti. She told the
security agency that she butchered her own husband (also a teacher) at
night on June 12 while he was sleeping in his room.
The police are, however, suspecting that the woman may be suffering from
psychiatric problems, as there was apparently no motive for the murder.
The couple got married in 2009 after a period of courtship and they had
been living peaceably until the tragic incident.
However, when her family could not produce any convincing medical
history to give impetus to the suspicion of psychiatric condition, the
police had to drag her to court.
Barely two weeks earlier, a 35-year-old lunatic named Kehinde (aka
Efunmi lowo Okan yin abale o) was found dead in a public primary school
in Ado-Ekiti, where he used to sleep until then. He was found with his
head cut off, fuelling the suggestion that he might have been killed for
ritual.
The murder of this famous madman generated a lot of controversies.
Accusing fingers pointed at a pastor of one of the new generation
churches. People claimed that the pastor, before the murder, had shaven
the madman’s head on two occasions and taken the hairs away, claiming
that he was administering deliverance on the man. The Police Public
Relations Officer (PPRO) Mr. Victor Babayemi, however, said this was a
mere rumour.
He said that the corpse the madman had been deposited at the mortuary.
However, he added that the police had not begun an investigation because
people concerned were not ready to give information.
Towards the end of June, a 70-year-old woman, Mrs. Rebecca Adewumi, was
tortured to death by some youths allegedly master-minded by some
traditionalists over an alleged confession of a young lady that the old
woman was a witch. The Adewumi family, through their lawyers, Messrs
Dele Omotoso and Company, in a petition dated July 5, 2012, said the
deceased was subjected to trial by ordeal, after she was accused of
causing the sickness of one Ola, her stepson.
According to the eldest daughter of the deceased, Mrs. Grace Smith, the
ordeal of her mother started on May 9, 2012 when her mother was taken to
the palace of the Olomuo of Omuo-Ekiti, Oba Noah Omonigbehin, charged
with being a member of a coven.
Mrs. Smith said: “After a series of questioning and being asked to
undress completely even to the pants, my mother was given a concoction
(Obo leave) said to make witches confess and die and was told that she
would die within seven days if she was involved in Ola’s matter. Nine
days passed and nothing happened and I left for my base in Lagos.
“Three weeks after, precisely June 26, 2012, some youths in the town
went to our house and brought out my mother and forced her to drink a
poisonous item and took her outside into the rain where she was beaten
and subjected to serious torture and when she was almost dying they took
her back into her room and laid her on the bed. She died on June 30,
2012,” Mrs. Smith explained.
She said further that while the old woman was being beaten, some youths
went to the house of her younger sister, Mrs. Anike Orojo, and beat her
for daring to cater for her mother. “Right now, no member of the family
knows where the corpse has been taken to and we want the police to
investigate her death as well as the assault on her sister,” she added.
The state government, appalled by the act, has asked the police to
apprehend those involved killing. The government is doing that through
state Ministry of Women Affairs and Gender Empowerment.
While this was still being discussed, news broke from Aramoko in Ekiti
West Local Government Area of the state that one Mrs. Bose Edijana Lucky
had been beheaded. It was Thursday July 6, 2012.
The woman was murdered around 9:30a.m, that fateful day along a footpath
leading to her husband, Mr. Naefenwa Lucky’s farm. She was on her way
to the farm with the man’s meal, it was said. It was further said that
when her husband discovered what had happened, he rushed to the town to
inform other Urhobo natives. He told them that his wife had been
beheaded by those he suspected to be ritual killers.
There and then, the community leader, together with other elders went
straight to the palace of Alara of Aramoko, Oba Olu Adeyemi and reported
the incident to him. Thereafter, the police drove to the scene of the
incident to remover the remains of the victim.
But cops were shocked to discover that the head with the neck had been
severed, as well as her arms and a chunk of her buttocks sliced.
The husband was taken to the police station where he made statements and
was subsequently detained as, according to the Urhobo community leader,
he was suspected to have known something about the killing of his wife.
The couple were said to be of Urhobo tribe from Warri in Delta State and
Bose, who was said to be about 40 years old, had four children. The
eldest child, Samson, 12, is in primary five and the last, Endurance,
six, is in primary one.
The Ekiti State Command of the Nigeria Police said about four persons
had arrested in connection with the death. Speaking with journalists in
Ado-Ekiti on the issue, the Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO) ASP
Victor Babayemi, said the four men arrested in connection with the
murder case were already in their custody. He disclosed that the police
have engaged the services of forensic experts and the force was waiting
for the autopsy reports.
While the police were still busy trying to unravel the mysterious death
of the beheaded mother of four, news reached newsmen that another murder
case had occurred at Erijiyan Ekiti. This time, it was a student of the
Ekiti State University (EKSU), Ado-Ekiti, Mr. Boluwaji Olarinoye. It
was alleged that he was stabbed to death by his friend, Mr. Wale
Adewumi.
The incident occurred at Erijiyan in Ekiti West Local Government Area of
the State on Friday night while the student was said to be demanding
for N50,000 his friend owed him. Adewunmi, who is said to have been on
the run since killing, has been declared wanted by the police.
The man was said to have called Olarinoye to his house that night over
issues related to a N50,000 he (Adewunmi) borrowed from the student to
support his timber business. Saturday Sun gathered that Olarinoye took
the money from the school fees his father gave to him, preparatory to
the second semester examinations of EKSU.
Olarinoye’s father told a radio station in Ado Ekiti last Saturday that
his son told him that he lent N50,000 to his friend and added that on
the fateful night, Adewumi invited his son to his house. The victim’s
father added that his son left the food he was eating that night to
answer the call. He said: “Boluwaji left for Wale’s house with the hope
that Wale was ready to settle the debt. But minutes later, I heard
people shouting and were lamenting that Wale and a group of his friends
had matcheted Boluwaji, leaving a deep cut on his throat,” the elderly
Olarionye told the radio station.
Following the death of Boluwaji, angry members of the community set
Adewumi’s house on fire. It was also said that the suspect’s household
fled shortly after the incident. However, an intensive manhunt by the
Ekiti State Police Command has led to the arrest of the suspect at
Ikere-Ekiti and he is being detained at the headquarters of the command
