- I know nothing about the boy’s disappearance, death – Suspect
She shed tears and cried uncontrollably when it dawned on her that her missing child had been found dead near her husband’s family house, where she resides with her children.
Twenty three-year-old Mrs. Opeyemi Lawal never had any inkling of what cruel fate visited on her on that fateful day. She had left her one and a half-year-old son, Sodiq, behind at home to quickly dash to her elder child’s school to pick him as usual. She had thought that she left Sodiq in a safe environment. But alas, that was the costliest mistake she had made in life.
Upon her return, Sodiq was nowhere to be found! Several hours of search and even consultations with spiritualists over the matter did not yield any fruit until the next day when the minor’s corpse was found in a canal, popularly called Ori-Omi, near the family house at Sokori in Abeokuta North Local Government Area of Ogun State.
Yesterday afternoon (Monday), I went to take Sodiq’s elder brother from school. When I came back around 1:00pm, I asked my neighbours about Sodiq; they said they didn’t know. And we all began to look for him. As I could not find him, I went to see one of my brothers for spiritual a inquiry concerning Sodiq’s whereabouts. He told me to search for my son thoroughly; that he was still within my husband’s family compound, where we all live
The distraught Opeyemi said that after her son’s abductors killed him, they also shaved off his hair for making money ritual before throwing his corpse into the canal, where he was found floating at about 9:00am the following day.
She is, however, point accusing finger at four members of her husband’s extended family with whom they live in the family compound in Sokori.
Opeyemi said that the four men (names withheld) allegedly connived to steal her child and later killed him to renew alleged money ritual made for one of them.
Explaining her ordeal to our correspondent, she said that she had gone to collect her deceased sons’ elder brother, Waris, from school on the day the incident occurred, but when she returned home around 1:00pm, Sodiq had gone missing and she searched for him everywhere in the compound to no avail.
She said when she could not find the boy, she had to quickly inform her husband, who was not feeling so well that day and her neighbours in the compound, to help her to look for her child, but they were unable to find him.
Speaking further on her ordeal, the mother of two said that she had to go for spiritual consultations in order to ascertain the whereabouts of her missing child. She said that she was told that the boy was still within the vicinity of the compound, but with a warning that if she failed to find him on that day, she would not see him alive the next day.
She explained further that when she went to inform the elders of the compound about the development, they went to the shrine of Ogun, the god of iron to find out who stole the child but the four suspects disrupted the process and also stopped a search from being conducted in their apartments.
She said that the four suspects later went to Ibara Police Station to effect the arrest of her husband for attempting to search their house over his missing son.
She said, “Yesterday afternoon ( Monday), I went to take Sodiq’s elder brother from school. When I came back around 1:00pm, I asked my neighbours about Sodiq; they said they didn’t know. And we all began to look for him. As I could not find him, I went to see one of my brothers for spiritual a inquiry concerning Sodiq’s whereabouts. He told me to search for my son thoroughly; that he was still within my husband’s family compound, where we all live.
“Later, my husband joined me in the search and decided we make another spiritual inquiry to find his child. He was told the same thing; that he should look for his son very well; that he was still within the family compound. One prophetess of a Cherubim and Seraphim Church saw me as I was looking for my child and she called me and told me that if I couldn’t find my son that day (Monday), by tomorrow (Tuesday), I won’t be able to find my son again.
“When we heard that my child was still within the family compound, we went to meet elders of the compound, who then ordered a search for the child through Ogun, the god of iron, but the likes of Taju Ayin, Arewa and Alubasi stopped the process and also did not allow us to search Taju’s apartment after all other houses in the compound had been searched. Later, the four of them went to Ibara Police Station and got the police to arrest my husband.”
Narrating how she found her missing child in the canal the next day (Tuesday), Opeyemi said, “I was not at home. I had gone to the human rights office to table the matter. When I got back home this morning, I saw everyone gathered in our house and they all started crying. I asked them what was the matter and they told me that they had found the dead body of my son around 9:am in the canal under Ori Omi.
“The four persons that I mentioned know about the death of my son, because his killers shaved the hair on his head and turned his neck backward to kill him and they later threw his corpse in the canal. The four persons I mentioned killed my son for money ritual because I know Ayin did “blood money.”
Also corroborating his wife, the deceased victim’s father, Quadri Lawal, who also claimed to have made some spiritual consultations over his child’s whereabouts, insisted that his son was allegedly killed for money ritual by the four men, who later got the police at Ibara to arrest him for trying to search their homes for his missing child.
“I was sleeping in my room because I was not feeling fine that day. My wife told me that he wanted to go and fetch Sodiq’s elder brother from school; the next thing I saw was that I couldn’t find my son again. I started looking for him from 12:00 noon till 7:00 pm. I then decided to do a spiritual consultation on his whereabouts and I was told that if I couldn’t find him that day (Monday), by the next day he would have been dead. My son was killed for money ritual before his corpse was thrown into the canal by his killers. They even got me arrested for trying to look for my son in their house,” he said.
The man accused by Sodiq’s parents of killing their son, Tajudeen Ede, said he was almost lynched by angry youths in the area over the issue of a missing child he knew nothing about.
The 75-year-old man said he had to flee to the Ibara Police Station for his safety when he saw that the youths were bent on lynching him, adding that the deceased boy’s father was arrested by the police when he came to the station to threaten him over his lost child.
“I don’t know anything about the death of Sodiq. When they were looking for the boy yesterday, I went to human rights office because I have a matter in their office. I later came back around 5:00pm and I heard that they were looking for the boy. I even allowed them to search my house. When the area boys came with stones and sticks to lynch me, I ran to the police station at Ibara so that they would not kill me. Sodiq’s father later came to me at the police station to accuse me of stealing his child and that was how he was arrested,” he said.
