A 39-year-old man named Dolapo Babalola has been apprehended by the Ondo State Police Command. He is accused of murdering his childhood friend, Evangelist Opeyemi Oyelakin, aged 34, and subsequently stealing the deceased's motorcycle. Babalola then sold the motorcycle to a buyer in Ibadan for N130,000.
The suspect and his accomplice,
Sikiru Mutiu, who is at large, committed the offence on March 15, 2024, in Ondo
town.
Babalola, who confessed to the
crime, said he and Mutiu deceived the deceased to take them to Oke-Igbo, a few
kilometres from Ondo town, to check a piece of land.
On getting to the land, which
was situated inside a bush, Sikiru grabbed the deceased from behind while
Babalola, struck him with a stick and stone until he died.
Police said the suspects
dragged the corpse to a shallow pit and covered it with leaves before making
off with the motorcycle.
The family of the father of one
lodged a complaint with police after efforts to locate his whereabouts proved
abortive.
Detectives swung into action
and arrested Babalola at his residence in Ondo town, headquarters of the Ondo
West Local Council Area of the state, after the tracking of the call logs of
the deceased.
Babalola, who spoke after he
led the police to the spot where the victim was dumped, said he regretted
killing his close friend and blamed the devil.
“It’s the work of the devil; I
can’t explain because this person that we are talking about is my close friend.
Truly, his bike is not the first I will ever snatch, but I have never killed
one before. Even those that are not related to me, I snatched bikes from them,
and I did not even do anything harmful to them,” he said.
"At least I have snatched
about 15 bikes, but I have never killed before. His own is the first; my buyer
is in Ibadan. But we sold this one at the rate of N130,000, and we share the
money equally because we are two in the business.
"When we intended to
collect the bike from him, he dragged it with us, and I hit him with a stone. I
know his mum and younger brother. I can’t really explain why I killed him. I am
a trader. I sell oranges, but I don’t have a shop. I do go to villages to buy
oranges. I am from Oyo State, Ibadan, precisely. But I reside in Ondo town.”
The Commissioner of Police in
the state, Abayomi Oladipo, who led detectives and medical personnel to
evacuate the decomposing body of the deceased from the pit where it was dumped,
said the suspect has a large syndicate and that efforts were on to arrest other
members of the gang.
“He has snatched an uncountable
number of motorcycles. Through technical intelligence, the suspect was arrested
and upon interrogation he confessed to how he committed the crime,” the CP
stated.
“I want to use this opportunity
to alert the members of the public, most especially those who ride Okada to be
careful of the passengers that will engage their services to far areas and take
them to isolated roads.
“Also, I want to say that the
residents of this area, especially those who farm here since on the 15th of
March, when this incident happened till date, kept mute which is not supposed
to be. So what we are saying is that if you see something you must say
something."
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