Gyang Bere, Jos
They call him Oladipo Oyefemi. A 33-year-old construction worker with Moulds Nigeria Limited, a Jos-based construction company engaged in major highway and civil engineering construction projects. He was alleged to have stabbed and strangled to death a 24-year-old lady, Patience Musa, after a night of fun.
Nobody knows his motive for the cold-blooded murder. Nobody knows what transpired between the two after the fun. Nobody knows whether he tried to shortchange the lady and she refused and a serious fight developed between them. Until matters began to unravel in the court of law where police are planning to take the case to, we can only live with conjectures.
Journey from fun spot to death
On account of the sordid deed, the Geology and Mining graduate of University of Jos has been arrested and detained at the Criminal Investigation Department, Plateau State Police Command, for the murder of the young lady who is said to be awaiting admission into a tertiary institution.
Investigation revealed that Patience, a resident of Tudun Wada in Jos North Local Government Area of Plateau State, left home in the evening on Friday, May 31, 2019 to play with her friends. From there, she proceeded to West of Mines, a suburb of Jos, the capital of Plateau State, where life begins at night and, while spending time there, met with Oyefemi who resides at Millionaires Quarters, Jos.
The duo reportedly engaged in a discussion that culminated in them agreeing to have a night of fun at an agreed price of N3, 000. After the negotiation, they proceeded to Oyefemi’s residence at Millionaires Quarters to spend the night together as they had previously agreed to do.
But before daybreak, the fun turned into agony, pain and death as Oyefemi allegedly killed Patience while she was in his house. He was said to have inflicted over five deep knife cuts on her breasts, neck, head and on the ribcage. After the deed, he carefully evacuated the corpse from his house with the help of his security guard, one Nasir, and dumped it in a nearby bush within the Millionaires Quarters.
Discovered by vigilante
Unfortunately for them, as they were doing so, they were accosted and subsequently apprehended by a vigilante group employed by the residents to keep vigil over the place and its environs. They were allegedly caught with bloodstains all over their body despite the fact that Oyefemi, the chief suspect, had washed his room and the scene of the crime sparkling clean in such a way that nobody could suspect that someone was killed there some hours earlier.
After the arrest of the duo by the vigilante, the Nasarawa Police Division was alerted. They arrived on the crime scene and took the suspects into custody before trying to locate the family of late Patience. A thorough search found not only the phone which Oyefemi is said to have hidden somewhere in his bid to cover up his crime but also the knife that he used to inflict the fatal wounds on the call girl.
How we received the sad news – Father
With the phone they put a call through to the father of the deceased, Musa, a native of Karfe Village of Manguna District of Bokkos Local Government Area, but who resides at Tudun Wada, Jos. He admits receiving what appears to be a distress call from his daughter’s phone from someone who bluntly told him to go to the Nasarawa Gwom Police Station.
But at first, he didn’t take the message seriously until when the call persisted on that fateful Saturday asking him if he was the father or elder brother of Patience. Another call came in towards evening through the deceased’s phone and the person introduced himself as a police officer and insisted that he comes to the station. But he pleaded that he should give him until Sunday morning because it was already late.
His words: “I was at home in the morning of Saturday, June 1, when I received a call from my daughter’s phone but heard a man’s voice at the other end asking me to proceed to Nasarawa Gwom Police Station.
“I thought she was involved in a fight or some kind of trouble with someone and got arrested. But when I arrived at the station, the policemen told me that my daughter was killed and her body dumped somewhere. They asked me to follow them to the hospital to identify her body.
“When I got to the Jos University Teaching Hospital mortuary and sighted my daughter lying naked with blood all over her, I fainted. I wasn’t myself. I went blank for some time. Before we reached there, I was praying that it should not be my daughter, but I know she has not been home since that Friday night. We have been looking for her.
“Suddenly, the reality dawned on me when I discovered that the corpse was actually that of my daughter even though she had already changed in appearance. She had stab wounds all over her body and her tongue was sticking out.” According to his account, his daughter had five stab wounds on her body: two on her breasts and one each on her neck, head and heart.
Cry for thorough investigation and justice
Seventy-four-year-old Musa said he wept like a baby. Only God knows the kind of agony and pains his daughter went through before she finally gave up the ghost. But the man is calling on concerned authorities, police, Department of Justice and Director of Public Prosecution, to investigate the matter thoroughly.
“No matter what will happen, I have been cheated,” he said amid sobs. “You can imagine having a grown-up daughter of 24 years and someone came overnight and killed her. I want the authorities to investigate this matter to its logical conclusion and find out why my daughter was killed. This is too painful for all of us to bear. She was murdered in cold blood, but all I want is justice.”
Asked about the kind of justice, he said: “If the authorities decide to punish him with death sentence so that he would suffer the same fate like my daughter, I will accept it. If they said he will be given life sentence in prison, so be it, but I will like to see justice done. This matter must not be swept under the carpet. A very stringent measure must be taken to deter people who take pleasure in killing others. The Police have asked me to fix a date for her burial,and they also assured me that they will sign the papers for me to take her corpse and after that they would arraign the suspect in court and proceed with the case.”
In fact, the sad incident has brought sorrow and pains to the family as tears dropped freely on the cheeks of Patience’s 54-year-old mother, Ruth Musa. Sympathizers trooped into the family house at Tudun-Wada, Jos, to condole her and her husband. On the day this reporter visited, he observed that women and some of the children were seated in one room consoling the woman while the menfolk were in the parlour talking with her husband.
Ruth looked sad and extremely worried. Speechless, she only nodded her head in acknowledgement of sympathizers’ condolences.
Family lawyer’s account
The family lawyer, Mr. Ralph Monye, speaking about the situation, confirmed that five fatal stab wounds were found on Patience’s body but added that she had marks on her neck that suggests she was also strangled.
He said that the police informed the family that after Oyefemi committed the crime, he proceeded to call his security man to help him dispose the body, but that the two men were apprehended by vigilante members, while they were doing that.
“While inspecting her body at the mortuary, we found that she was killed in a very brutal manner,” Monye said. “She was stabbed on both breasts with the attacker aiming directly at both nipples with precision, then directly on her heart, then the neck region and other parts, before strangling her. The police also informed us that after he killed her, he cleaned everywhere in his room and dressed his bed so neatly that no one could even imagine that such gruesome murder happened in the same room.”
Monye said that when he (suspect) was led by the police to his house for inspection, they discovered a neatly cleaned room, adding that it took them hours before they could retrieve the deceased’s phone and bag from him as he hid them and refused to hand them over.
The suspect and police spokesman speak
The suspect, who spoke at the State Criminal Investigation Department (CID), where he is being held, confirmed that he was being held on alleged murder and was transferred from the Nasarawa Gwom Police Station on Monday, June 3, to the state CID. He admitted that he was arrested alongside his security guard, Nasir, for murder, but declined further comments.
Spokesman of Plateau State Police Command, DSP Mathias Tyopev who confirmed the incident said he does not have details about the suspects. “The case of culpable homicide involving one Patience Musa was yesterday, June 3, transferred from Nasarawa Gwom Police Station to the State CID for discreet investigation. That is all I can tell you now,” he said.
But there are different stories on the murder being peddled around. Some believe Oyefemi may be a cultist and killed Patience for ritual purposes. This opinion differs from some who feel that if he killed her for rituals, her body wouldn’t have been intact. There are others who feel that something must have gone awry between the two over the terms of payment. But most residents of the state believe that the truth behind the killing will only be unravelled once the suspect is tortured, followed by detailed investigation into the matter by law enforcement officers.