By Akintunde Jacobs, Akure
A 39-year-old man, Dolapo Babalola has been arrested by the Ondo State Police Command over the alleged murder of his childhood friend, Opeyemi Oyelakin and theft of the victim’s motorcycle.
The suspect, who acknowledged committing the crime, took a team of police officers led by the state Commissioner of Police, Abayomi Oladipo, to a farmland in Oke-Igbo town where the corpse of the victim was buried.
According to the suspect, who spoke with journalists at the scene of the incident, he stole the motorcycle of the deceased, which he was using for commercial purposes, and sold it in Ibadan, Oyo State capital, for N130,000.
The suspect, who confessed to the crime, stated that on March 15, he deceived the deceased to take him to Oke-Igbo, a few kilometres from Ondo town, to check a piece of land.
He said on getting to the land, which was situated inside a bush, his partners in crime, Sikiru Mutiu, grabbed the deceased from behind while he struck him to death with a stick and stone.
Oladipo, the CP, who led the team of his men including medical personnel of the state police clinic and journalists to the scene of the crime said, “through technical intelligence, the suspect was arrested and upon interrogation he confessed to how the rider was engaged from Ondo town to take him and one other to a farm area in Oke-Igbo, and the rider who incidentally happens to be his friend brought him to this area where we are and on getting to this point they came down under the pretence that they want to inspect their farm, the other suspect who is now at large gripped the okada rider at the back while the arrested suspect hit him with stone on the head and consistently use wood to battered his head.
“Thereafter, they carried the dead body into the bush and used leaves to cover him and they left him there. After the interrogation, he led the operatives to this particular location where they put the dead body of the deceased and that is why we are here to remove the corpse and do the necessary procedure so that the family can give him burial.
“I want to use this opportunity to alert 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.
“At the moment we are still investigating to apprehend all other offenders who are on the run.
“Also, we have embarked on an enlightenment campaign to sensitise okada riders to know the danger in taking passengers to isolated places.”
While the suspect; Babalola said, “It is the work of the devil, I can’t explain because this person that we are talking about is my close friend. He is a close friend of mine. Truly his bike is not the first bike I will snatch but I have never killed before. Even those that are not related to me I snatch bikes from them and I did not even do anything harmful to them but this one is just a coincidence.
“It is the work of the devil. I can’t explain how it happened. At least I have snatched about 15 bikes but I have never killed before. His own is the first, my buyer is at Ibadan. The newness of the bike determines how much we sell it, but no matter how clean the bike is, my buyer will buy it for around N200,000.
“But we sold this one at the rate of N130,000 and we shared the money equally because we are two in the business. When we wanted to collect the bike from him, he dragged 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, I’m yet to marry, and this would be the first time I will come to this area and I have been in this business since 2021/2022,” he said.