A 49-year-old transporter, Saburi Lateef, has reportedly confessed to strangling a retired civil servant, Mrs Adedotun Oluwaseun, and inflicting multiple machete wounds on her body at her residence in Bode Olude, Abeokuta, Ogun State.
Lateef, popularly known as Alhaji Oki Osan, was arrested more than 10 months after the murder by operatives of the Ogun State Police Command following investigations reportedly intensified on the directive of the Inspector-General of Police, Olatunji Disu.
In a shocking twist, the suspect allegedly joined sympathisers who visited the deceased’s residence to mourn her, despite his alleged involvement in the killing.
A police source at the Homicide Section of the command, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the investigation initially yielded no breakthrough until the Commissioner of Police, Bode Ojajuni, directed detectives to intensify efforts to unravel the murder.
The source said the killing was suspected to have been motivated by the belief that the deceased had recently collected her retirement benefits, which the suspect allegedly wanted to steal.
According to the source, Lateef gained access to the woman’s apartment through a window while she was away attending a friend’s retirement party around the Rounder area of Abeokuta.
He was allegedly ransacking the apartment when the woman returned.
In a bid to prevent her from raising the alarm, he reportedly strangled her before picking up a cutlass and inflicting multiple wounds on her body.
The source added that the suspect subsequently moved her body to the toilet and placed it on the closet to ascertain whether she was dead.
However, Lateef claimed that the killing followed a financial disagreement involving N3.45m, which he allegedly entrusted to the deceased.
He said he had known Oluwaseun for about 10 years and became close to her after she moved into her residence at Bode Olude.
According to him, he sold his broken-down truck as scrap for N3.5m and handed the balance of N3.45m to the deceased, whom he claimed had promised to lend him money to purchase another vehicle.
He alleged that despite repeated requests, the deceased neither provided the promised loan nor returned his money.
Explaining what happened on the day of the incident, Lateef said he was determined to recover the money.
‘Though I was drunk that day, it was not the first time I had taken alcohol. I was just frustrated that I needed my money,’ he reportedly said.
He admitted gaining access to the apartment after removing the burglary proof from one of the windows.
‘When she came, we had a serious disagreement and I strangled her. After that, I picked a machete in her apartment and inflicted cuts on different parts of her body,’ he said.
However, the deceased’s family dismissed the suspect’s account, insisting that they neither knew him nor had any knowledge of a financial transaction between him and their mother.
The eldest daughter, Mrs Taiwo Atanda, said her mother had visited her and spent several hours with her and her children after attending a friend’s retirement party on the day she was murdered.
She said the family became worried the following day when repeated calls to her mother’s telephone failed to connect.
Atanda said a woman living close to the deceased’s residence was contacted to check on her.
The woman subsequently went to the house with another resident, where they discovered the deceased’s body on the toilet closet with multiple machete wounds.
The daughter expressed shock that the suspect claimed to have been close to her mother, insisting that nobody in the family had ever seen him around the deceased.
‘We don’t know this man. We have been celebrating Christmas with my mother, and we have never seen him in her house. My children usually spend their holidays with her, but nobody has ever seen him around her.
‘The first time I saw him was the day after my mother was killed. He was one of the mourners who came to her residence,’ she said.
The family called on the police and the Ogun State Government to ensure that justice was served, insisting that their mother must not die in vain.
Confirming the arrest, the Police Public Relations Officer of the Ogun State Command, DSP Oluseyi Babaseyi, attributed the breakthrough to the persistence, professionalism and commitment of officers and men of the command.
He assured residents that the police would sustain efforts to rid the state of criminal elements and ensure that anyone found culpable was brought to justice.