The two suspects were picked up by
operatives of the Inspector-General of Police (IGP) Special Intelligence
Response Team (IRT), led by Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP), Mr Abba Kyari.
Babatunde and Rasaq were picked up at
different locations during the course of investigation into the sudden
disappearance of the victims, Adebisi Oriade 21, and Julian Eke Imaga, 18. The decomposing
bodies of the victims were recently found inside a bush in Oru-Ijebu
several weeks after they were declared missing in May.
The deceased students were said to
be lovers. Oriade, popularly known as 'Oh Dollar,' was until his death a
300-Level Computer Science student of OOU while his girlfriend, Julian, was a100-Level
Law student of the same university.
On Friday, the Ogun State
Commissioner of Police, Ahmed Iliyasu, paraded the principal suspects in the
murder case at the state police headquarters, Eleweran, Abeokuta, alongside 23
others arrested for various offences ranging from armed robbery to cultism,
stealing, rape and ritual killing.
Several arms and ammunition as well
as stolen items were recovered from the suspects. However, it was the criminal
exploits of Babatunde and Rasaq that generated much interest as relatives of
their victims and other members of the public stormed the police headquarters
to listen in awe as they revealed how they murdered the two undergraduates.
Iliyasu explained that operatives of
the IRT in collaboration with men of his command unmasked the daredevil
killers.
The commissioner disclosed that the
suspects forcibly took their victims into a bush and smashed their heads with
planks and gun before escaping from the crime scene.
He said: "On June 3, Adeola
Oriade of No. 1 Queen Oriade Crescent Oju-Ore, Ota complained that Adebisi
Oriade left home since May 28, 2018 with his girlfriend, Julian Eke Imaga in
his Honda Crosstour car
with registration number FST 350 FA, but has not returned since then. On the
strength of the complaint, IRT operatives in collaboration with men of the Ogun
State Police Command embarked on technical intelligence based investigation
which led to the arrest of Babatunde and Rasaq from whom an IPhone X with
Etisalat SIM and two pairs of canvas shoes belonging to Adebisi were recovered.
“On interrogation, the suspects, who
are strong members of the dreaded Aiye Confraternity Cult Group, confessed that
Adebisi and his girlfriend were killed by them and that the victims were lured
to a junction at Oru-Ijebu where they were taken to a nearby bush and their
heads smashed with planks and gun."
Iliyasu, who stated that Adebisi’s
car had been recovered, said that efforts are ongoing to nab the remaining
culprits in the murder.
New Telegraph reliably gathered that the decomposing bodies of the
late lovebirds were recovered on June 19 and subsequently deposited at the
morgue of General Hospital, Ijebu-Ode for autopsy.
During the period when Oriade and his
girlfriend were reported missing, several stories were flying around, including
how the young man allegedly acquired his wealth through internet scam,
otherwise known as 'Yahoo Yahoo.' Babatunde confirmed this much while
speaking with New Telegraph in an interview where he
narrated what transpired between him and the victims.
Babatunde, who stated that he
dropped out of OOU in 2012 following his initiation into the Black Axe Movement
(Aiye Confraternity), said he and the late Adebisi were involved in cyber fraud
deals.
According to him, Adebisi belonged
to the Buccaneers, another cult group popularly known as Alora. He
revealed that the failure of the deceased to give him his share of
a $6,450 internet scam ignited the bad blood.
Babatunde further confessed that he
killed Julian in order to cover the whole secret since she was with the main
target on the fateful day.
Babatunde said: “Adebisi was like an
area brother to me. What really happened was that we've been into internet fraud
for months. We have been sharing money that do come from what we managed to
work together and everything was alright, until sometimes in April when Adebisi
loaded my client's credit card with $6,450 which was equivalent to over
N2m in Naira. I was expected to collect the money from my client and give him
his own share which he refused. As he collected the money, it immediately
reflected in my client's account. I got nothing in that transaction; that means
I was just used. I called him and said 'how far boss?' I do call him boss
because he knew more about the work than me. He promised to get back to me. He
asked me to send my account number, which I did. Since then till May, I heard
nothing.
"The last time I saw him was at
Oru station bus stop when he came to shop at a mall. He was with the present
number two of their Alora Confraternity. I tried to talk to that one to help me
talk to him because of my money. The number two told me to send my account
number, that Adebisi would send the money. But I didn’t hear or received
anything from him. The next thing I started receiving on my phone was threat
calls. They would call me and say they had collected the money and that there was
nothing I could do about it. Adebisi had a lot of connections. If he picked his
phone, he could call the Assistant Inspector General of Police (AIG). So, he
had been calling to threaten me on this issue. I'm also a cultist, so I said
instead of me to lose my money and still lose my life, and then whosoever that
is fast should go. That was what led to the killing. As I noticed the threats,
I changed my mind that I was not even going to collect the money again.”
Babatunde explained that on May 28,
he knew that Adebisi usually comes to one of his friends place to play. When he
noticed that Adebisi was around, he alerted two of his colleagues.
He said: “We got there around
10:00pm. Then he came out with his girlfriend. He was about going to his own
hostel when I asked him to go back to the back seat of his Crosstour car. I
took over the steering and drove along Ijebu-Ode Expressway where we killed him
and his girlfriend. We left their dead bodies there. I drove his car to
Awa-Ijebu Police Station because there was nothing I wanted to do with it."
Babatunde insisted that Adebisi was
fond of cheating his partners in cyber frauds by not giving them their due
share of illicit proceeds. He cited a $7,000 deal which Adebisi
allegedly had with another person and refused to part with any share until the
latter took drastic measures.
His words: "There is somebody
whom I can't mention his name that had to come with his brother, soldiers and
police to kidnap Adebisi to a hostel. They forced him to give the guy his own
share of the money. Adebisi used to get people's money and just keep it to
himself whenever they had deals together. Then, he wanted to buy another jeep,
C350 Mercedes Benz, which is N16m. He has already bought it. He was about to
clear it (at the port) when the person I'm talking about had to use his brother
that is in Army and police to get his money from him."
Babatunde said he did not resort to
similar measure because, first, Adebisi had connections and secondly, he had
nothing in his bank account.
Babatunde recounted: “Adebisi had
nothing in his account. He said he was still looking for N2m to clear the C350
Mercedes Benz jeep that he just bought. Adebisi had N900 in his account the day
we met on May 28."
Narrating his own side of the story,
Razaq 18, said that he and Sodiq, who is still at large, met with Babatunde at
Oru junction on the fateful day. Rasaq, who confessed to have been initiated into
Aiye Confraternity in 2015, confessed to taking part in the murder.
Razaq, however, explained that it
was Babatunde's girlfriend, Seun Yetunde, who had been monitoring Adebisi’s
movement. He added Yetunde brought a bag that contained two guns and a cutlass
to Babatunde who later handed one of the guns to him and the cutlass to Sodiq.
He said that Babatunde indeed told
them that he wanted to kill Adebisi who has parted away with his money and he
agreed to the plot.
Adebisi’s father, Prince Adedeji
Oriade Oyede, denied the allegations made by Babatunde that his son was a
cultist and an Internet fraud.
The grieving man said: "My son
was never a cultist or an Internet fraudster. Babatunde kept going back and
forth. He was quoted to have said that my late son used to help him with money
but suddenly he Adebisi stopped and became arrogant and that was why he killed
him.”
The victim's father, however,
appealed to the concerned authorities to ensure justice in the case, saying:
"we want justice to prevail. We want government to do the needful so that
the remaining people will learn lesson there."
The distraught mother of Julian, Mrs
Olamma Ofor, wept profusely as she tried repeatedly to gather herself together
to speak. She told our correspondent that her husband is currently away from
Nigeria but had been informed about the sad incident.
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