Christianah Idowu’s killing: Police confirm main suspect now in custody

By John Ogunsemore

The Lagos State Police Command said 23-year-old Ayomide Adeleye, the main suspect in the kidnapping and killing of undergraduate, Christianah Idowu, is now in its custody.

Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO) in the state, SP Benjamin Hundeyin disclosed this in a terse post on X on Thursday.

He said the 9 Brigade, Nigerian Army handed over the suspect to the command around 2 pm on Thursday.

“23-year-old Ayomide Adeleye has been handed over to @LagosPoliceNG by 9 Brigade @HQNigerianArmy.

“The handover took place today, September 5, 2024, at about 1400hrs.

“Investigation is ongoing,” he said.

Daily Sun earlier reported that many Nigerians, including popular singers Adekunle Gold and Ayra Starr, called on the authorities to ensure justice in the matter of Christianah’s kidnapping and killing.

Christianah, a 300-level student of Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta, Ogun State, was murdered after being abducted between Ikorodu and Yaba in Lagos State.

She was said to have left her home in the Itaoluwo area of Ikorodu enroute the University of Lagos in the Yaba area of the state where she was observing her industrial training before she was abducted.

Christianah’s abductors reportedly reached out to her family through her telephone number and demanded N3 million as ransom on Monday, August 26.

The family pleaded for a reduction in the ransom demand and offered N350,000, which the abductors reportedly asked them to send to a certain account.

However, the abductors refused to release the victim as obtaining the agreed sum.

An X user, @letter_to_jack, gave detailed information about the incident in a series of tweets that have since gone viral.

He tweeted, “On the 19th of August 2024, Christiannah Idowu was declared missing after her parents were contacted by her abductors using her own WhatsApp contact.

“The first contact with the parent was established around 8:49 pm after which they sent photos of the victim in captivity to them using the WhatsApp ‘view once’ feature.

“The abductors requested for a ransom fee of N1,500,000. Christiannah’s parents raised N350,000 immediately. The abductor then requested that the money be sent to a bet account through a bank deposit channel. (Info reserved for now).

“After receiving the money, on the 22nd of August, the abductor requested that bank statement of the sender be forwarded to his email (withheld).

“On the 23rd of August, family complied. Immediately after that, the abductor stopped communicating with the parents.

“Meanwhile, on the 22nd of August, some amount was sent to the GTB account of Christiannah and the amount was then withdrawn into the wema bank account belonging to the main suspect ( Name withheld for now).

“Investigation by intelligence operatives began on the 26th to unravel details of the account number.

“By the 29th, intelligence operatives had confirmation from the bank that the BVN linked to the masked Betting account allegedly belonged to the account owner (name withheld for now) who also operates the Wema Bank (account no withheld for now).

“Further investigation revealed that he was able to withdraw the sum of 100,000 from the betting account before agents got the bet company to lock the account.

“Armed by this information, operatives began investigation into the suspect whom they observed to have a mutual relationship with Christiannah Idowu, especially judging by Instagram posts as they both commented on each other’s pages.

“The crazy thing is: the same account number used to launder some amount directly from Christiannah’s account has been posted on Twitter once to “beg for a give away free money.

“With all these information at hand, the operatives began to track down his cell phone activities and text messages. The cell phone tracking led them to his parent’s house, somewhere in IKORODU.

“Operatives then got confirmation of his presence in the building through active tracking of his mobile device. Immediately, gallant personnel of the Nigerian army 174bn swooped in on the suspect to conduct arrest.

“After the arrest, damning evidences were seen with the suspect and this includes the victim blue ITEL A56 with IMEI:35230.

“Also, in his phones are details of the money moved and also details confirming he owns the Betting account that was locked. It was registered with his phone number.

“On his phone, they found an interaction between his personal email and the email address that has been interacting with the family of the deceased.

“After reviewing the evidence, the suspect was then taken into custody to enable the operatives conduct further investigations. Upon reviewing this evidence, suspect was successful taken into custody for necessary action.

“On September 3, the suspect reportedly confessed to the father and the soldiers that he killed the girl and buried her in their house.

“There is also a new story awaiting further confirmation that in 2018, the suspect’s ex-girlfriend was killed in same manner. Also that in 2020, the suspect’s own biological sister met the same fate, and the same thing has happened to Christiannah in 2024.”