• ‘Estranged lover drags embattled NURTW chief to police over unpaid N8m loan
By Funke Busari
Abiodun Odebunmi never saw it coming. On April 8, 2021, she breathed her last under bizarre circumstances, sending shock waves around her Lagos neighbourhood. But her ghost hasn’t been laid to rest yet.
Fifty-year-old Alhaji Kehinde Salihu, alias Akile, Chairman of the National Road Transport Workers Union (NURTW), Abule-Egba branch, accused of killing and setting ablaze Adebunmi, a POS Operator, has been rearrested.
According to reports, the deceased, Odebunmi, had gone to see a customer with the sum of N4 million for a POS transaction in Iju Ota, Ogun State.
Sadly, the corpse of the POS operator was discovered in an uncompleted building at Arobieye area of Ota, without the trace of the perpetrators.
In order to unravel those behind the heinous act, the police detectives swung into action, leading to the arrest of Kehinde and some other persons to explain their roles.
Police sources say the suspects were arrested at the boundary between Ogun and Lagos. The man suspect had travelled to Benin Republic to witness the court proceedings of the case involving Sunday Adeyemo, the Yoruba Nation activist also known as Sunday Igboho, it was gathered.
Kehinde and his alleged accomplice were subsequently paraded and charged to court. But his attempt to get off the hook led him into a deeper mess.
The embattled Chairman of the NURTW, Abule-Egba, Lagos Branch, was rearrested by detectives attached to the Ogun State Police Command, Eleweran.
It was gathered that he had sought financial help from a woman he had been romantically involved with before they parted ways. She claimed Akile fraudulently obtained N8 million from her, and she has vowed not to leave any stone unturned to recover the money.
He was paraded by the Ogun State Police Command on Monday August 14, where he spoke to Saturday Sun on his ordeal.
Narrating the incident that led to his second issue with the law, the suspect said when he had the previous murder case on the killing of the POS operator, his estranged lover lent him some money to secure his freedom. However, his inability to refund the money compounded his woes.
Aside from his inability to refund the money, arguments regarding the exact figure involved haven’t been resolved yet.
It is a case of love gone sour, and the police have been involved to mediate between the estranged lovers.
Referring to the case of the POS operator murdered in Iju Ota, he said: “Five years ago, some Fulani used to kidnap people and hide their victims in a bush along Iju, but I detailed some boys to that bush to watch over the environment, because we heard that they usually kept kidnap victims in the bush and would later release them after collecting ransom.
“I went to the bush to keep watch, because I was one of Sunday Igboho’s boys. Later, it was said that a POS operator was burned in the bush by some persons, and I was the first person they came looking for in my house. But I fled to Ekiti.”
He said Odebunmi’s killing was the handiwork of members of Eiye Confraternity. He explained: “Eiye Confraternity set the bush on fire. But they insisted that I was the first person who set the bush on fire. I had earlier razed the bush to ensure that people could see the place clearly.
“Afterwards, some cultists went into the bush. My boys and I had left the bush before they went into the bush – the bush is just behind the Winners Church. It was even the church’s security that called our attention to the incident.”
According to him, a preliminary report revealed that it was some cultists who chased someone into the place with cutlass. He said he confessed to the killing of the POS operator under duress, saying he was almost losing his life in police custody.
He added: “I told the police that the cultists burnt the whole area, and that I didn’t get down from inside the vehicle where I was seated.”
Narrating how he was initially arrested in connection with the incident, the suspect explained: “I fled to Ekiti, returned to Lagos and later went to Benin Republic before I was arrested, charged to court and was granted bail.”
He, however, claimed his trial was yet to commence for reasons he wasn’t privy to. “I was told I would be called when the hearing of my matter comes up,” he told this reporter
Clearing the air on his bail condition, he said he never jumped bail and neither was his sureties arrested. He claimed he was granted bail.
“My sureties were not arrested. I spoke with them just last week. I even sent N20,000 to one of them last week. If my bail was revoked, it would, therefore, mean that those who intervened in my bail and who paid the bond have withdrawn from my case, Those are the people I owe the money used in facilitating my bail,” he said.
Speaking on his latest ordeal, he noted: “I was accused of owing N8 million, but I agreed that I would pay it. But the money spent was not up to N8 million, though she reported to the police that I duped her. I have explained that I did not dupe her and told the police my own side of the story.”
He also said that he was accused of theft of vehicles but he claimed that was never true. “I came to the police station. If the vehicles were stolen, I would not come. The vehicles – Honda Acura and Ford Hilux – were the vehicles I bought recently.
“I bought one for my cement business and another for my personal use. The vehicles are worth N3.5 million and N1.9 million, and all the documents are now with the police.
His wife was also paraded by the police. And speaking on her ordeal, he explained that his woman-friend actually transferred N300,000 into his wife’s account to assist him.
He said upon lodging a complaint to the police by his woman-friend, the police asked that all parties in the development should all move to Ogun State Police Command Headquarters from Onipanu Police Station and that amicable settlement would be reached on the case by the time they got to the Ogun State Police Command Headquarters at Eleweran in Abeokuta.
He said he was keen about repaying her what the complainant lent him, although he insisted the money was not up to N8 million.”
Asked how he intended to pay what he owed, he said: “I can ask my wife to arrange N1million for me tomorrow. I will sell my two vehicles at the police station and pay her, because she helped me.”
“Though I work within the transport sector, I didn’t use their money to buy vehicles. My children are living and working in America, and they sent money to me for my cement business,” he boasted.
Also, narrating her predicament, his wife, Aishat Adekunle, a 43-year-old nurse, claimed that her husband had an issue in connection with Yoruba Nation and he was seeking bail before the supposed benefactor came into the picture.
According to Aishat, “My husband told me that his woman-friend would transfer N300,000 to me and that I should take it to the person assisting him for his bail.
“My husband had also informed me that he was returning from a court proceeding in connection with Sunday Igboho before he was arrested, and that was why she was running errands for his bail around 2021.”
She said she had met her husband during their primary schooldays in Shasha. They lost contact for years and met again years later and began dating;
She said they lost contact but met again and began chatting on the phone. She stated that when Kehinde asked about her husband, she informed him that she was divorced due to a personal challenge.
When she was asked if she was aware that her husband was facing a murder case, she replied: “I was not aware of his murder case but the allegation about Yoruba Nation was what I was told was his problem with the law.”
She insisted that it was N300,000 that was sent by his woman-friend to her account on his behalf.
“I didn’t even know the person before. It was when he came home and said that we should go to his hometown that I met the woman, and we all went there together,” she said.
When asked about the N8 million, she explained: “Whatever people are doing, they should always remember the day of reckoning, and the day they would die, because that day, the woman threatened me that she would make sure she punished me for snatching her man from her. I did not know that she was going to go to this extent.”
She said her husband bought the two vehicles in police custody on July 5, adding: “I owned the house in Ota. I built it from my earnings assisted with contributions.”
For now, it remains to be seen how the current case of issues of loan between both parties would be resolved, but one clear fact is the pendency of the murder charge against Kehinde.
From the facts gathered so far, he is yet to be charged to High Court for his alleged crime, but was walking free before the case of repayment surfaced.
However, it is curious to know that a murder suspect, who has not been formally charged before a High Court, is on bail.
A Magistrate Court can only remand a murder suspect in prison custody pending the advice of the Director of Public Prosecution.