The mastermind of the gruesome killing of a couple, Kehinde and Bukola Fatinoye, on New Year’s Day in Abeokuta, Ogun State capital, has given an insight into the motives behind the dastardly act.
The mastermind of the incident, Lekan Adekanbi, according to the police, said he arranged the killing because the couple refused to increase his salary.
The suspect, who enlisted the help of two suspected cultists to carry out the killings, also killed the only son of the couple, Oreoluwa, who they bound with rope and hurled into a river at the Adigbe area of Abeokuta.
Adekanbi claimed the couple declined a loan request he put forward to them, explaining that the new year robbery attack on the Fatinoyes and their murder was targeted at forcibly extorting money from them.
Adekanbi, who had been the couple’s driver since 2008, explained that he invited two others, Ahmed Odetola a.k.a Akamo, and Waheed Adeniyi a.k.a Koffi, to join him to attack the couple.
The suspect made this known while being paraded at the Ogun State Police Command Headquarters, Eleweran, Abeokuta yesterday.
He said: “I took the step because the couple refused to increase my salary, and when I approached them for a loan to buy a motorcycle, they didn’t oblige.
“Since that failed, I gave the deceased my Access Bank account to which the sum of N1,102,000 (One million one hundred and two thousand) was transferred at gunpoint.
“When I realised that my identity had been known through my bank account, I decided with others to terminate the lives of the couple.
“That was when Waheed Adeniyi a.k.a Koffi took a knife from their kitchen and slaughtered the husband, Kehinde Fatinoye, while I used sledge hammer to hit the wife, Bukola Fatinoye, on the head and she died on the spot.”
Adekanbi also narrated how the only son of the couple, Oreoluwa, walked to his death on that fateful day.
He said while the robbery was going on, Oreoluwa and the couple’s adopted son, Felix Olorunyomi, entered and they were immediately seized, beaten and their hands fastened with ropes behind their back.
The sons were subsequently driven to Ogun River Bridge at Adigbe and thrown into the river.
Briefing newsmen about how the suspects were arrested, the Police Public Relations Officer, Abimbola Oyeyemi, said they were all arrested one after the other, following painstaking investigation.
Oyeyemi said: “In the course of investigation, Lekan Adekanbi, a driver to the deceased’s family, was arrested based on circumstantial evidence, while investigation continued.
“The suspect, Lekan Adekanbi, suddenly collapsed in the cell on the 2nd of January 2023, and he was rushed to the hospital for medical care.
“But while in the hospital receiving treatment, he suddenly jumped from the bed and escaped through the fence of the hospital.
“His escape further confirmed the police suspicion of his involvement and the Commissioner of Police ordered the State anti-kidnapping unit to join forces with the homicide unit in order to get the escaped driver and his accomplices arrested.
“The two teams, in compliance with the CP’s directive, embarked on a technical and
intelligence-driven investigation and traced the movement of the suspect to his elder brother in Iseyin, Oyo State, but he had left the place before the arrival of the police.
“The teams further intensified their efforts which yielded positive results when Lekan Adekanbi was apprehended in his hideout somewhere in Abeokuta on the 21st of January 2023.
“Waheed Adeniyi a.k.a Koffi and Ahmed Odetola a.k.a Akamo were both apprehended at Ogere on Thursday 9th of February, 2023.
“The three suspects who are members of Aiye confraternity have all confessed to their various roles in the gruesome and callous murder of the family members.”
