AN 85-year-old man, Jimoh Oladiran, has been reportedly found dead in Asipa village in the Odeda Local Government Area of Ogun State.
It was learnt that Oladiran’s body was found near a river on March 13, after his children began a search for him when he did not return from a trip he embarked on with one Alfa Mufa.
His eldest son, Sulaiman, said he was shocked when he saw his father’s corpse covered with a rusty roofing sheet.
He said he suspected that his father, a resident of Somorin Alagbonmeta in Obantoko area of Abeokuta, must have been hit with a stick in the head and bled to death.
Sulaiman said, “My father told me at about 10am on Saturday (March 12) that he was going to Asipa with a man we have known as his relative, Alfa Mufa. He said they had a programme there. On Saturday night, we did not see him. I called our brother, who is the Baale of Asipa, Chief Kehinde Omirinde, and told him about it. He told me to wait until the next day before taking any steps to locate him.
“When we did not see him until 12pm on Sunday, I called Baale again; he said we should not wait any longer. So, we went to Asipa. At Asipa, we met Ibrahim Mufa’s wife, who told us to calm down, saying our father went to the next village, that he would soon return. But with the way she was nervous, I suspected all was not well, so I told my two other brothers.
“We saw Ibrahim Mufa coming from the river and asked him where our father was and he said we should be patient. Later, he said we should handle him gently or kill him. We just insisted on seeing our father and he started running away. At this point, the villagers had come out with sticks and cutlasses to attack us. Two of us ran away, but one of us was seized by the villagers.
“As we were running to Abeokuta with our motorbike to call the police, we met operatives of OP-MESA at Opeji. We told them what happened and they escorted us back to the village. When we returned to the village, they had already beaten my brother, Kazeem to a pulp. The OP-MESA men arrested Alfa Mufatiu and handed him over to the police at Bode Olude. The following day, the police accompanied us to Asipa and Alfa Mufa took us to where our father was killed by the river. We observed that he was hit with something on the head. We saw blood on the mat they said he slept on. At the riverside where his corpse was dumped.
The son of the deceased also said his late father’s head was wrapped with a blood-soaked cloth while his body had begun to decompose when it was recovered the next day.
“We want Nigerians to assist us. We seek justice,” he added.
Also speaking, the Baale, Chief Omirinde, said the late Oladiran had told him to allocate land to Mufatiu and his son, whom he said were unknown to him.
“These suspects, Alfa Mufatiu (father) and Ibrahim Mufatiu (his son) were brought to me by this same Jimoh Oladiran, a maternal cousin to my father. One day, they called me saying that they needed land for farming. I don’t know how they got my phone number. I said no land for them. Three days later, they brought the deceased to plead for them and I said they would get the land if the whole family endorsed it. But they told me they wanted to have a feast in the village, I said no problem.
“On Thursday, March 10, Ibrahim Mufa called me that the event would be held on Saturday; he told me to be there. But that day, I didn’t go. Surprisingly, late Oladiran went for the feast and he didn’t tell me, I would have told him not to go. It was the children that came to me when they didn’t see him to return home. It is so sad, they killed the man and threw his body near the river. I have captured Ibrahim Mufa myself at Elega Market and we have taken him to Fadage police station at Bode Olude.”
The Ogun State Police Public Relations Officer, Abimbola Oyeyemi, told our correspondent on Saturday that he would get back when he gets the details of the incident but had yet to do so as of the time of filing the report.
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