Police Public Relations Officer, Lagos State Police Command, Ngozi Braide |
The Lagos State Police Command has
arrested a manager and a housemaid for killing their boss, Alhaja
Sikirat Eko, in Omole Phase 1, Lagos State.
Eko was said to be running a restaurant and bar in her compound, where she lived alone with the maid.
According to the police authorities, the
suspects allegedly killed Eko at her home located on 5, Babatunde
Ladega Street and kept her corpse within the premises.
The suspects were said to have continued
to run the restaurant, giving neighbours and customers the impression
that the deceased had travelled.
The two were said to have run out of
luck when relatives of the deceased came on a visit. When the suspects
could not provide a satisfactory answer, the matter was said to have
been reported at Area G Command, in Ogba.
A police source who preferred to remain
anonymous, told our correspondent that the manager threw Eko into a well
inside the compound along with a generator.
The manager was said to have taken her phone which he used in impersonating her.
“The manager was using the deceased’s
phone and assumed her identity. Sometimes, he would send text messages
with her phone, telling people that all was well”, he said.
It was learnt that when the house was thoroughly searched, Eko’s corpse was found in a decomposing state.
A family friend, who preferred to remain
anonymous, said, “Mummy (Eko) has just one child and she lives in the
United Kingdom. When she could not get her mother on the telephone, she
called relatives to help her find out what was wrong.
“When the relatives got there, the
manager told them that she had travelled. The relatives became
suspicious because the house was left open and the manager behaved as if
he was the owner of the house. The relatives then reported the matter
to the police.”
Our correspondent, who visited the area on Thursday, observed that the gate of the premises was locked.
A security guard in the area said Eko hadn’t been seen by neighbours in over two months.
The security guard described the deceased as a very nice but strict woman.
He said, “The last time we saw madam
(Eko) was during Sallah. When we asked the housemaid her whereabouts,
she said she had travelled to Abuja. I became suspicious because her
vehicle was still parked outside the compound.
“It wasn’t until Saturday when policemen
stormed the area that we knew what had happened. Policemen arrested
about five of us, thinking that we were among but fortunately, the
manager and the maid confessed.
“The incident is very sad because madam
(Eko) was a very nice person. There was one time that my motorcycle was
seized. She was the one that urged the police to give it back to me.”
When contacted on the telephone, the
spokesperson for the state police command, Ngozi Braide, confirmed the
incident to our correspondent.
Braide said the manager was the one who
planned the killing. She added that the two would be paraded before
journalists on Friday (today).
“The two suspects have confessed to the crime and they will be paraded before journalists on Friday,” she said.
Culled from PUNCH
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