The mother of a slain student of the Olabisi Onabanjo University, Ago-Iwoye, Ogun State, Mrs. Maria Oriade, has revealed that the ghost of her late son, Adebisi Oriade, has continued to appear to her in her dreams and pleading with her to take vengeance on his alleged killers.
Maria, a mother of six, who lamented that the death of her fifth child, who was a 300 level Computer Science student of OOU, still remained a shock to her, said that since the demise of the 22 -year-old, he had constantly appeared to her in her dreams, weeping and telling her that she should not allow his killers to go unpunished.
The distraught 60-year-old mother alleged that one Muritala Babatunde, alleged to be a member of a secret cult group, Aiye Confraternity, and his accomplices, killed her son and his girlfriend, Juliana Eke Imaga, in a gruesome manner because Adebisi had earlier refused to give them money.
Adebisi’s mother said that the alleged mastermind of her son’s murder, Muritala, assisted by Taiwo Rasak, who is also a member of the Aiye Confraternity and one Sodiq, attacked the undergraduate and his girlfriend, Juliana, on May 28 while they were on their way to buy food for dinner and abducted them in Adebisi’s car to a nearby bush, where they killed them.
Maria, who said Adebisi’s birth 22 years ago had changed the situation in her family, as things began to look up for them, appealed to the Ogun State Government and the police to adequately punish her son’s killers.
“I dream about my son everyday in my sleep, begging me to take vengeance on his killers and saying that he should not die in vain. My son always comes to me in my dreams crying and when I ask him why he’s crying, he’ll say, ‘Mummy, mummy, mummy, I want you to stand up and fight for me’ and I’ll say I cannot fight for you; that it is only God that can fight for you and take vengeance on your killers. He’ll then say he would have loved to take care of me, and then I’ll wake up,” she said.
Recalling how she learnt of Adebisi’s death, she said, “On the 28th of May, I received a phone call that my son (Adebisi) was missing in school (Olabisi Onabanjo University). Then, I started looking for him and I was told that one Muritala had killed my son and his girlfriend. My dream for my child was to become the president of this country. I want the government to give the necessary punishment to Muritala and I also want the police to make sure that Muritala faces the full wrath of the law.
“I heard that Muritala met my son at a petrol station and asked him to give him money and my son told him that he had no money on him. Later, Muritala went with some of his boys to attack my son, when he went out with his girlfriend to buy what they wanted to eat at night around 9:00pm. My son pleaded with Muritala not to kill him, but he did not listen to his pleas. He took them in his car and drove him and his girlfriend to a nearby bush, where they killed them.”
Mrs. Olanma Offor, mother of Adebisi’s girlfriend, Juliana, who was also killed along with her boyfriend, wept profusely as she narrated the circumstances that led to the sudden demise of her 18-year-old daughter.
Offor wished a miracle had happened on that fateful day to save her daughter, who was a Law student in the same university with her murdered boyfriend.
The 40-year-old woman lamented that her daughter’s killers had taken away her joy, describing her as the only one who always made her happy.
She said, “I spoke with my daughter last on the 27th of May and she told me to wish her happy children’s day and I said ‘are you a baby?’ and she told me ‘I am your child.’ I did. On Monday, I called her phone and she wasn’t picking and I said may be she couldn’t charge her phone. The third day, fourth day and then fifth day, and I was irritated because we were used to talking to each other.
“I called her father in the United States and asked him to give me his cousin’s number, who is also in the same school with Juliana. I rushed down to the school, but already the Oriade family had reported the case.
“This is a pain that you can’t explain, a pain you don’t know who to hold responsible. Why didn’t God just surface there. She is my only daughter, she is my only sister and she’s my only friend.”
Muritala in his confession to the police at the Eleweran Command Headquarters, claimed that he killed Adebisi because he refused to give him his own share of proceeds from an internet fraud (yahoo yahoo) deal they had together.
Twenty-nine-year-old Muritala, who is a drop-out of OOU, alleged that Adebisi withdrew the $6,450 (N2m) proceed from the ‘yahoo yahoo’ deal and refused to give him his own cut.
He claimed that he decided to forgo the money and decided to take revenge on Adebisi, who he alleged was a member of a secret cult, Alora confraternity, and had been threatening his life over their alleged joint deal.
Muritala, who said that he didn’t mean to kill Adebisi, expressed regret that he killed his girlfriend, Juliana, because he didn’t want her to expose him as her boyfriend’s killer.
Explaining how he and his accomplices killed Adebisi, he said that they waylaid him and his girlfriend while the two of them were driving in Adebisi’s Honda Crosstour car.
Muritala, who also confessed his membership of another secret cult group, Aiye Confraternity, denied killing Adebisi and his girlfriend, Juliana, with guns. He disclosed that he and his ‘boys’ bundled Adebisi and his girlfriend into his car and drove them towards Ijebu Ode Expressway, where they beat them to death with planks of wood.
Muritala said “He is a street brother to me. We have been into internet fraud (yahoo yahoo) together for months, until sometime in April, when he loaded my client credit card with $6,450, which is equivalent to more than N2,000,000. I was expected to collect the money from my account and give him his own share, which he refused. Immediately the money reflected in my account, he removed it again and as a result of that, I had nothing from the transaction; that means I was just used.
“I called him and he said I should send my account number to him. I did, but since then nothing. The last time I saw him was at Oru bus stop, where he came to a shopping mall. He was with the number two man of the Alora Confraternity and I told that one what he (Adebisi) did. He said I should send my account number and that Oriade would send me the money. I did, but since then, I didn’t get any money. The next thing was that I started getting threat calls telling me that they had collected the money and that there was nothing I could do about it.
“He had always cheated others with whom he had any deal. He went and bought a N16,000,000 Mercedes-Benz, which he wanted to clear. Since he had been calling to threaten me on this issue, I said I couldn’t lose my money and my life also.
“So, on the 28th of May, I know he normally visited one of his friends in my area, I went with two other colleagues of mine around 10pm to lay ambush for him. As he was going back to his hostel with his girlfriend, I waylaid them and ordered them to go back into the car, and we drove them to the Ijebu Ode Expressway, where we killed him and his girlfriend. We left their corpses there. And I took his car back to Awa Ijebu Police Station because there was nothing I wanted to do with his car.
“We used planks of wood to beat him to death by hitting him all over his body and head. Although we were with a gun, we never used it. We used the planks to kill him and his girlfriend and we dumped their corpses there. I didn’t intend to kill him, but since he had been deceiving me about the money and members of his cult group had been threatening to kill me, I decided to kill him. I killed his girlfriend to cover up the whole secret. But she never did anything wrong to me.”
One of the suspects, Taiwo, popularly known as Iku (death), also confessed to the police that Muritala contracted him and one Sodiq to help him to kill Adebisi for refusing to pay back some money he owed him.
Taiwo, however, claimed that Muritala had not paid him any money to help him to kill Adebisi and his girlfriend.
“Muritala asked me to follow him to attack someone (Adebisi) who owed him money. We were three that went there to kill them- myself, Muritala and one Sodiq. We beat them to death with planks and I did not receive any money from him
in return.”
