- Police Recover Body 4 Days After
Yusuf Oketola
A 25-year-old suspected internet fraudster, Wasiu Oguntade, has been gruesomely murdered by four of his friends in Modakeke, Ife North East Local Council Development Authority (LCDA).
Oguntade, according to investigation by OSUN DEFENDER, was killed by his close friends, Ayobami Adegoke and Wahab Hammed, behind an uncompleted building at Alaro area of Modakeke, on Sunday, August 7, 2022.
In a short video obtained by the medium, the friends confessed to killing Oguntade because he was making more money than them in the internet fraud business.
According to the suspects, Oguntade was macheted to death.
The decease, according to a relative, was lured out of his house by his friend who called him for a land business around 4pm.
The relative who spoke with OSUN DEFENDER under condition of anonymity disclosed that the deceased’s pregnant wife, Mary Oguntade, tried to reach his husband on phone around 7pm on the day of the incident when she noticed it was getting late but could not get him.
OSUN DEFENDER gathered that the deceased’s phone was called severally before it was picked by one of the suspects who said Oguntade was involved in an accident at Ipetumodu.
Oguntade’s wife, according to the source, left Modakeke to Ipetumodu in search of her husband in hospitals but did not find any accident victim in all the hospital visited.
It was gathered that Sodiq, one of Oguntade’s friends who participated in his killing, also joined the wife in search of her husband.
The source said, “On the morning of that incident, some of his friends came to tell him about a land for sale which he showed interest. Around 4pm on that day, his wife said he left the house with his bike to inspect the said land.
“When it was getting late, the wife was expecting him to have returned and she tried to call his number repeatedly but he didn’t pick the call. At a point, she said someone was cutting the call but later picked it.
“The person who picked the call said Wasiu was involved in an accident and was receiving treatment at a hospital in Ipetumodu. His wife asked the exact hospital they took him to but the person didn’t disclose.
“Then his wife had to go from Modakeke to Ipetumodu to search for her husband in all the hospitals there. She searched till around 10pm and when she couldn’t find him; she went back home.”
The relative further disclosed that the deceased, on getting to a certain area in Modakeke, abandoned his own motorcycle and joined another motorcycle owned by one Ataare who took him to inspect the land.
Investigation by OSUN DEFENDER revealed that the family of the deceased reported at a police station in Ipetumodu that Oguntade was missing. But the case was not well attended to, according to the family.
The case was later reported to the Vigilante Group of Nigeria (VGN) which led to the arrest of Ataare, the motorcyclist who came to pick the deceased and was the person that called him last.
Another family source said: “Upon noticing that Ataare was the last person who called Wasiu on phone as overheard by his wife, he was immediately arrested and locked in the VGN cell. We went back to Modakeke to search Ataare’s house, thinking that the deceased was kidnapped.
“But we couldn’t find him alongside the lady motorcycle he went out with. On getting back to the VGN office in Ipetumodu, we found out that Ataare had escaped from the cell through the window.
“Few minutes later, we got a call that he has been re-arrested at nearby street where he was trying to steal cloth on a dryer.
“That was when we concluded that definitely, something is fishy and that the guy is a suspect. Then they took him to the police station where he was locked up. After that, some set of people went to the police station to threaten him.
“At that point, he mentioned the name of Sodiq who is a close friend of the deceased and when the situation was getting tense, they transferred the case to the State Criminal Investigation Department in Osogbo.
“On getting to the State CID, Ataare confessed that it was Sodiq who told them that the deceased was financially buoyant and making more money than him, and they have to kill him.
“We discovered that Wasiu has been killed since that Sunday he left home. Then, Ataare took the police to where his body was. Wasiu was killed inside one uncompleted building and his body was abandoned there. We found the body on Thursday, four days after he was killed.
“The deceased’s motorcycle was found in one of the suspect’s house. It is only his phone that was not found. He was macheted to death.”
Police Public Relations Officer, Osun Command, Mrs. Yemisi Opalola, confirmed the incident, disclosing that the suspects would be charged to court soon.
