Man allegedly stabs lover to death in Ikorodu

… He is wanted–Residents

By Bose Adelaja 

CITIZENS COMPASS–All was well on Tuesday, July 9, 2024, at No. 19, Unity Zone, Ladegboye area of Ikorodu, Lagos State, until one of the tenants, Fatai Mogaji, was visited by his lover, Opeyemi Soyinka.

Initially, the visit went well and nobody could have suspected foul play until in the middle of the night when things started going awry between the love birds and this led to Fatai’s disappearance from home.

Thank God for the landlord who was proactive enough that something abnormal had occurred in his house and he quickly began an inquiry only to discover the visitor lying in the pool of her blood while her host had disappeared into thin air.

Further inquiries by the landlord revealed that the lady had allegedly been stabbed many times by the lover before he disappeared from the scene of the incident.

Although the Ikorodu Division of the Nigeria Police Force had transferred the matter to the Homicide Department at Panti but Fatai’s whereabouts remain uncertain.

Information made available to Citizens Compass revealed that on that fateful Tuesday,

Yemi, as fondly called it, was to spend the night with Fatai, unfortunately, an argument over finance later broke out between the lovers which led to Fatai allegedly stabbing his visitor on different parts of the body.

According to residents, Fatai, having perpetrated the evil, allegedly covered her with a bedspread, dragged her into the kitchen, and disappeared from the house.
Before her untimely death, the deceased was said to have left her Komina Street apartment at about 9 p.m. and informed neighbours about her visit to Fatai’s house.

Citizens Compass learned that she planned to return home the day after unknown to her that she was embarking on a journey of no return.

Speaking with our Correspondent on Monday, July 15, 2024, the Chairman of Ladegboye Community Development Association (CDA), Mr. Hameed Rasak, described the incident as unfortunate and called on individuals, groups, and organisations to assist in fishing out the suspected killer.

The CDA Chairman said on that fateful day, Fatai’s landlord in a telephone conversation informed the CDA about the incident, “that one of his tenants had killed his visitor.

“Initially, the landlord never knew the lady was dead and before I arrived at his house, he had incidented the report at Igbogbo Division where some policemen were deployed to the scene of the incident.

“When the policemen got to his house, they discovered that the lady was dragged from the bedroom to the kitchen and covered with bedspread and they had to break the door to the apartment to evacuate the body.

Fetish items recovered

“Some fetish items like black soap, calabash, cowries, and a knife soaked with blood were recovered from the apartment.”

He said the community was working with the Police to get the suspect arrested. “On our own part, we have shared the information on social media to aid his arrest.

“We purposely took the picture to locate her address and relatives and this paved the way for the community as her parents have been located, courtesy of our Baale.” He said.

Citizens Compass gathered that before she gave up the ghost, Yemi screamed for help at about 4 a.m., but nobody came to her rescue. At dawn, the landlord and other tenants were said to have peeped through the window only to behold her body.

In a chat with Citizens Compass, the Baale of Ladegboye corroborated with the CDA Chairman about the incident.
while the deceased landlord, Mr.

Adedamola Daniel, said she was a hairdresser and also relocated from Maryland to the community in 2023.
“Before I approved her tenancy, I told the agent who brought her to get all her details which revealed that her brother was my friend in Ebute-Meta.

“On Tuesday, she told me someone sent money to her but she didn’t receive the alert and I told her to wait till the following day to complain to her bank.

“She was an adult, my grandma and I cannot restrict her movement. I also called her brother to inform him that his sister had been killed, her brother screamed and promised to call me back, Ope was a nice girl.”

An elder brother to the deceased, Mr Wahab Soyinka who lives in the Agric area of Ikorodu said he received the news about the death of Opeyemi through one of his brothers.

“As soon as the news of her death was broken, the family went to the police station, where we were told that the case had been transferred to Panti for further investigation.

“We were also told the suspect had been declared wanted, my prayer is that he is arrested, because he’s the only one who can tell us why he stabbed her to death.”

He said: “I suspect it was a ritual issue, because why would he stab her severally? Her two children are also with her mother-in-law. We were asked to come back next week at Panti. We want justice for her, I don’t want her to die in vain.”

Spokesperson, Lagos State Police Command, SP Benjamin Hundeyin, did not respond to messages sent to his cell phone by Citizens Compass.