A 39-year-old man named Dolapo Babalolaa has been apprehended by the Ondo State Police Command. He is accused of murdering his childhood friend, Evangelist Opeyemi Oyelakin, aged 34, and subsequently stealing the deceased’s motorcycle. Babalola then sold the motorcycle to a buyer in Ibadan for N130,000.

The suspect and his accomplice, Sikiru Mutiu, who is at large, committed the offence on March 15, 2024, in Ondo town.

Babalola, who confessed to the crime, said he and Mutiu deceived the deceased to take them to Oke-Igbo, a few kilometres from Ondo town, to check a piece of land.

On getting to the land, which was situated inside a bush, Sikiru grabbed the deceased from behind while Babalola, struck him with a stick and stone until he died.

Police said the suspects dragged the corpse to a shallow pit and covered it with leaves before making off with the motorcycle.

The family of the father of one lodged a complaint with police after efforts to locate his whereabouts proved abortive.

Detectives swung into action and arrested Babalola at his residence in Ondo town, headquarters of the Ondo West Local Council Area of the state, after the tracking of the call logs of the deceased.

Babalola, who spoke after he led the police to the spot where the victim was dumped, said he regretted killing his close friend and blamed the devil.

“It’s the work of the devil; I can’t explain because this person that we are talking about is my close friend. Truly, his bike is not the first I will ever snatch, but I have never killed one before. Even those that are not related to me, I snatched bikes from them, and I did not even do anything harmful to them,” he said.

“When we intended to collect the bike from him, he dragged it with us, and I hit him with a stone. I know his mum and younger brother. I can’t really explain why I killed him. I am a trader. I sell oranges, but I don’t have a shop. I do go to villages to buy oranges. I am from Oyo State, Ibadan, precisely. But I reside in Ondo town.”

The Commissioner of Police in the state, Abayomi Oladipo, who led detectives and medical personnel to evacuate the decomposing body of the deceased from the pit where it was dumped, said the suspect has a large syndicate and that efforts were on to arrest other members of the gang.

“He has snatched an uncountable number of motorcycles. Through technical intelligence, the suspect was arrested and upon interrogation he confessed to how he committed the crime,” the CP stated.

“I want to use this opportunity to alert the members of the public, most especially those who ride Okada to be careful of the passengers that will engage their services to far areas and take them to isolated roads.

“Also, I want to say that the residents of this area, especially those who farm here since on the 15th of March, when this incident happened till date, kept mute which is not supposed to be. So what we are saying is that if you see something you must say something.”