The prime suspect, Ayomide Adeleye, who reportedly committed the abduction and murder of a female student from the University of Agriculture, Abeokuta, Ogun State, Christian Idowu, has confessed to the police why, how, and when he committed the crime.
The victim, aged 18, left her home in the Itaoluwo area of Ikorodu to travel to the University of Lagos in Yaba, where she was undergoing her industrial training, and got missing.
Visibly shaken by the fate that awaits him, 23-year-old Ayomide, a 300-level philosophy student of Olabisi Onabanjo University, OOU, gave a graphic detail of how he perfected the crime.
Read details below.
“I was born in Surulere Local Government Area in June 2001. My parents later relocated to Ikorodu, where he has his own house. I have three siblings. One of them is late.I am the first son, and my father is a boat driver. Before I was born, he and my mom worked at the Eko hotel. So, I think due to their marriage, one of them had to stop working or something. When he stopped, my mom was still there until 2011.That’s when my mom stopped. I attend Redeem Christian Church of God.”I haven’t been home for over six months. The victim, Christiana Idowu, contacted me severally in school, where I am studying philosophy at the 300 level. She had been contacting me that she wanted to fix her phone because I had fixed it before for her.
How did you meet her before?
“We are church members. I had known her for three years before the incident. So she has been contacting me, like I said, and I told her I would be home at session end; during semester break, I didn’t go back home. I stayed around. But when I came back to Lagos, she called, and I told her I was at home. She came to our house around 5pm on the day of the incident and asked me to repair her phone. She’s an IT student at Yabatech. She came with the bike. The rain was still drizzling. She had her bag, things that she used to go to Yaba for her normal IT.
So, when she arrived, I collected the phone from her, I looked at it, and then I noticed that what was wrong was just the battery, and the screen opened. I just needed to gum the screen and just change the battery. But she was not ready to change the battery, so I would just gum the screen for her. She would continue using the battery as it went.
She did what?
She brought the phone, so I collected the phone from her, checked it, and noticed that it was the battery and screen that were bad. I just glued the screen. I killed her because I’ve been having financial setbacks. I thought of the setbacks and decided to strangle her while she was busy going through my phone. I then called her mother, claiming that she was kidnapped and that she should pay ransom. I didn’t really pounce on her. She was occupied with my own phone. Then, rain was still drizzling, and it was a little bit noisy. I just grabbed her and applied pressure. She started struggling. She didn’t really shout because I already suppressed her. I then squeezed her throat, and she gave up. I placed her body on a seat and took a picture of her so that I would send it to the mother. I didn’t send it that instant. I just left her at the shop like that. That was around 5:30 p.m. on Monday night. I left her on the seat and went to plan how to dispose of the body. By 11 p.m. that same night, I started digging her grave in a small farm behind our compound. Luckily, rain fell that day, so the ground was a little soft. So, I dug using a shove. I was not able to dig that well that night. So, I postponed the digging to 4 a.m. The body was still in the shop. By 4 a.m. the following day, I woke up and continued digging. Honestly, I did not close my eyes till daybreak. I was just filled with thoughts about what I did. I then took the body to the shallow grave only to notice that it could not be covered well. I thought of what to do because I was really tired of digging. I had blisters on my hand, and the shovel I used had already broken at the place where it was joined. If I should continue digging, it will snap. So, I thought of chopping off her head, but I did not have the courage to do that. I just had to continue digging even if the shovel broke; I still dug till it got to her length. I then buried her and covered it with sand. Everything happened before 5 a.m. Then I left the scene to contact her mother and demand ransom.”
How did you get the mother’s number? ‘It was on the daughter’s phone. Luckily, she did not have a PIN number or passcode. I recognised her mother’s face on her profile picture. I then called, and the first thing I said to her was, “Hello, madam. We have your daughter.” I used the pronoun we instead of I. The next thing she said was, “Who be this?”Maybe she thought it wasn’t for real. Then I sent a text telling her the same thing. I sent it with the picture. where she was sitting on a chair. She asked me, “What do you want?” I told her, “Madam, how much do you have?” I spoke to her. I wrote everything in Pidgin. She said, “I don’t have any money. I am a single mother.”I said, “Madam, just bring anything.” She said she didn’t have, and I said, Bring three million to release your daughter. I know for a fact that she doesn’t have three million. Even if she did not have that amount, I was ready to collect any amount because I desperately needed money, no matter the amount. After going back and forth with her, she said she was able to get N350,000.00, and I gave her a Sporty Bet account to pay the money in order to avoid traces. That was three days after I buried her daughter. She sent the money there, but I was unable to withdraw at first because Sportybet has this rule that once you deposit, you have to play at least a game or something before you can withdraw. I tried to withdraw, but they locked the fund. Then, they told me to present my NIN for verification. I sent it to them, and they released the money. They didn’t release it until three days later.That’s the following week that I was caught. But before, they released it. You know, I told you I had financial setbacks. I asked the mother, “Madam, how much can you pay again? She said the money in her account wasn’t up to N10,000.00. I said, Just hurry, hurry, put it together and send.” She sent it to her daughter’s account, making the whole money of N360,000.00 paid as ransom. After that, I stopped all communication with the mother. But, before they sent the money, they were telling me that they wanted to actually send video confirmation or voice confirmation, but the girl was no more. It was only that picture I took that I was able to send. So, I just kept on pushing them. I used the money to take care of my personal and family financial problem.”
How did police arrest you?
It was not police because I was picked up by soldiers. They told me it was through my SportyBet because I uploaded my NIN, so it was traced. If I had not uploaded my NIN, it would just be an empty account. But the moment I uploaded my NIN, all my things—my location, my address, my name, everything—were already on the sportybet, so my name was already shown on the account. So, I think they got it through SportyBet, my location, everything through SportyBet. The girls’ phones were also with me, so they could have traced the location of the phone; that was how they got my location.”
How do you feel now that you have taken somebody’s life over peanuts?
“Even before I was arrested, Christiana is somebody that I have known for over three years, and we have been close friends. I regret that it had to be her because my mom and her mom are friends.”Have you ever had any mental issues that landed you in the hospital? “I wouldn’t say that it landed me in the hospital, but I am always alone.I don’t like associating with anybody.”What was the last word she said before you took her life?” She wasfocussing on the TikTok video. She just did not say anything. In fact, when that incident happened, my cell phone dropped from her hand.”
Now, what do you want to be done for you? “I don’t deserve any mercy for what I have done. At the same time, I ask God to forgive me. What I did was totally wrong, and I regret it.I feel regret for what I have done. If there’s any way I could be given a second chance, I deserve death, honestly. I have been planning, while I was going to a soldier’s hostel in the guard room, when I told the MP my confession, to use any sharp object and wound myself so that I will bleed to death.”
