The Kogi State Police Command has paraded four suspects in
connection with the killing of Damilola Olowoyo, a 19-year-old 100 level
student of the Federal
University Lokoja.
The four suspects paraded included Jeremiah Paul, the
principal suspect, who was arrested around the Felele area of the state capital
on Wednesday, Emmanuel Otitoju, Banabas Olugbenga and Ajayi Basit Ayomide.
Paul, a 20-year-old who hails from Chikun Local Government of
Kaduna State, confessed to committing the crime.
In his confessional statement, Paul said, “I came to Kogi State to hustle. I met Damilola last Sunday. I approached her and she accepted. We started chatting. I already had it in mind that I wanted to use Damilola for ritual. I bought codeine and Sprite and mixed it up and gave it to her.
“I first drank it so that she wouldn’t suspect it. When she
drank it, I told her let us go to my house and she agreed. When she felt weak,
I took her to an uncompleted building close to my place and strangled her to
death. The cloth she was wearing, I used it to tie her leg and neck. I later
dragged her to a nearby bush and removed what the native doctor told me to
remove.
“The native doctor who resides in Ibadan sent a driver and
brought a calabash and a knife. He used a black and white cotton to wrap the
calabash and a red cloth to wrap the knife. It is the knife I used to remove
parts of her body, which are the eyes, tongue, lungs, intestine and some parts
of her buttocks. I put it inside the calabash and wrapped it. I now gave it to
the driver who he sent from Ibadan to Lokoja. So, the driver waybilled it back
to Ibadan. After that, he now waybilled my soap back to Lokoja. I met the
native doctor on tiktok and I copied his number and later messaged him on
Whatsapp. I went with my friend to Ibadan to see the native doctor.”
Parading the suspects at the Police headquarters, in Lokoja,
yesterday, the Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO) William Aya, noted that
Paul lured the deceased into the bush and killed her for money ritual.
Aya, a Superintendent of Police (SP), while disclosing how the
suspects were arrested, said there was a complaint made to the Commissioner of
Police (CP), over the disappearance of Olowoyo, a student in the Department of
Biological Science, Federal University Lokoja.
His words: “The Commissioner of Police swung into action and
assigned the matter to the State Intelligence Department. The operatives swung
into action immediately and started working on the phone of the deceased, since
it could not be reached. With the help of the technical unit at the force
headquarters, we were able to apprehend Jeremiah Paul in connection with the
case.
“The suspect actually confessed to us that on 4th of
September, 2024, that he met the deceased Olowoyo and lured her to the bush. At
first, he pretended that he liked her. When she accepted, he took her to an
apartment. Before then, he gave the deceased a drink. Unknown to her, inside
the drink, he had put some codeine.
“This worked in her system which made her weak for the suspect
to carry out his heinous crime. He took the deceased to an uncompleted building
before strangling her to death and dismembered her body. He removed her eyes,
lungs, liver, tongue and fleshy part of her buttocks with the purpose of
performing some rituals.
“Initially, he called the parents of the deceased that he had
kidnapped the lady and demanded for ransom, in which he was paid, before
killing the girl. He collected a ransom of N400,000 from the parents.
“Further investigation also revealed that one of the suspects
here was the first person that approached the girl, but because he couldn’t
provide what was being demanded from him, he withdrew. The main suspect,
Jeremiah Paul decided to step in. He came with his friend from Kaduna State to
commit this crime.”
The PPRO appealed to parents and students to be conscious of
people they are moving with.
He added, “You may be seeing somebody as a human being but he
is not. This act that Jeremiah Paul and his gang have carried out is an inhuman
act. Imagine a 20-year old boy going this far; killing an innocent lady and
removing her sensitive body parts, in the name of carrying out rituals.
“It shows that in the society we are living in, people need to
be very careful. I am calling on students across the various institutions to be
very careful with their friends, course mates and neighbours they are mingling
with. Some people will be within the school environment but they are not
students.
“Some may have admission and they are in school, but they have
their own aim of being there. Students should be contented with what they have.
Because of little things, this girl lost her life.”
He added that the command will arraign the four suspects as
soon as investigation is concluded.
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