The two aides of the late former
Vice-Chancellor of the Federal University of Technology, Akure, Prof.
Albert Ilemobade, who allegedly killed the don, have confessed that they
carried out the act in order to steal the deceased’s Toyota RAV4.
The suspects ─ Olayemi Bamitale, the
driver; and Daniel Ita, the gateman of the deceased ─ were paraded at
the headquarters of the Ondo State Police Command, Akure, on Monday.
They explained that they strangled their boss without any other member of the family knowing it.
Ilemobade’s
decomposing body was found at the garage of his house at Ijapo Estate,
Akure, on Sunday, after he had been declared missing for one week. It
was reported that the former VC had been kidnapped by gunmen before the
discovery that his aides murdered him.
PUNCH Metro gathered that a few
months ago, Bamitale, who hails from Ekiti State, was arrested by the
police and sacked by his boss for allegedly stealing the same RAV4, but
he was released on bail after the intervention of some friends of the
deceased. It was gathered that he returned the jeep when he did not see
any buyer for the vehicle.
It was gathered that Bamitale allegedly used to sneak into the deceased’s house after his sacking to visit the gateman.
Bamitale said it was during one of such
visits that he and Ita (gateman) decided to steal the vehicle again. He
said an unidentified herbalist advised them to kill their boss before
stealing the vehicle.
He said, “Daniel (Ita) told me about the
herbalist on the telephone. When I visited him, he told me that the
herbalist said if we wanted to go scot-free after stealing the vehicle,
we must kill Baba (Ilemobade) and that we must take some sand from that
house so that there won’t be any problem afterwards.
“Daniel lured Baba to the security room
on the pretext that there was a power surge. Baba thereafter went to the
security room. It was there that we strangled him. We dragged his
remains to a store beside the garage and dumped his body there. We put a
picture on his chest so that if the body is later found, they will
think that it was those who killed him that dropped the picture.”
Bamitale said after killing the
professor, they went into his room and took the car key, N7,000, laptop
and two phones. He said Ita locked the entrance gate and they drove away
in the RAV4.
Bamitale said, “When we were about
leaving the Ijapo Estate, the policemen wanted to stop us, but they
allowed us to go when they saw Daniel (Ita). It was around 11pm.
“The following morning, we took the vehicle to Lagos, but we could not find any buyer. We left the place for Ijebu Ode.
“Some officers of the Federal Road Safety Corps impounded the vehicle in Ijebu Ode because the documents were not complete.”
The driver added that they were fined
N3,000 for the offence, adding that since they no longer had money on
them, they decided to sell the the laptop and the two phones to secure
the release of the car.
“One of Daniel’s (Ita) kinsmen in the
Epe area of Lagos agreed to buy the phones and he gave us N3,000 to
secure the release of the seized car.
“When we returned to Ijebu Ode, the
person I contacted to buy the vehicle called the police and that was how
we were arrested,” Bamitale added.
Ita, however, said Bamitale lured him
into the evil act, noting that the deceased was very nice to them and
did not deserve the treatment he got.
He said Bamitale came up with the idea
that they should steal the vehicle and convinced him that if they could
steal the car successfully, they would be able to raise enough money to
start a business of their own.
Ita said, “He said the best way to make
it succeed was to kill my boss. I refused. I said he could steal money,
tie him down and do anything, but not to kill prof. He insisted that if
we did not kill the man, he would trace us. I now agreed with him.
Around 9pm on the fateful day, he called me and I came out to meet him.
He still insisted that we must kill the man for us to succeed.
“He told me to lure the man outside. I
stood at his window and I lied that there was a power surge. When he
came out, Bamitale strangled him.”
The state Commissioner of Police, Isaac
Eke, said the command received information from the Ogun State Police
Command that the professor’s gateman, one Daniel Ita, and his former
driver had been arrested with the deceased’s red vehicle, with the
registration number, GGE 589 CF.
The commissioner said they were evil,
adding that the suspects dropped the slippers and wristwatch of the
professor at the gate, which made the police and family to believe that
he was kidnapped.
He said, “The professor was gruesomely
murdered by the people he fed on a daily basis. On this note, I want to
appeal to the people to always know the background of those they want to
employ as domestic workers.
“They could also should contact the police to help in conducting an investigation.”
Eke said the relatives of the deceased
had deposited the corpse in a morgue, adding that the two suspects would
face the wrath of the law.
Punch
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