The police in Ogun State said they have arrested four men in connection with the ‘sudden disappearance of a 36-year-old woman, Aminat Adebayo.
Police spokesperson Abimbola Oyeyemi said the woman went missing on September 15, 2022.
Oyeyemi identified the suspects as Azeez Raimi, 21, Yusuf Saheed, 33, Awodero Michael, 27 and Soneye Lateef, 39.
Their arrest followed a complaint lodged at the Sagamu Divisional Police Headquarters by the victim’s elder brother, Ahmed Adebayo, who told the police that his sister left home on September 15 and never returned.
The Ogun State Commissioner of Police, Lanre Bankole, had subsequently directed the anti-kidnapping unit of the State CIID “to unravel the mystery behind the sudden disappearance of the woman.”
In compliance with Bankole’s directive, Oyeyemi said the Supol Taiwo Opadiran-led team’s technical investigation led the police team to one Soneye Lateef, owner of the hotel where the victim was last seen.
While being interrogated, the hotelier allegedly admitted that the missing woman was invited to his hotel on September 15 by her friend, identified as Bose Fajebe, who was at the hotel with her boyfriend.
According to Oyeyemi: “As soon as the woman arrived, the hotelier picked interest in her and started a romantic discussion with her. While the two of them were discussing, Bose and her boyfriend left them and went away.”
Lateef claimed the victim also left a few minutes later, while he and his two friends, Saheed Yusuf and Michael Awodero went to see a herbalist named Azeez Raimi, where they stayed overnight to carry an Ifa ritual.
“But contrary to his claim that the missing woman was not with them at the shrine, the Ifa priest confirmed that he saw the woman in the vehicle with Soneye Lateef and Yusuf Saheed outside the shrine, saying they later left with the lady in the night to somewhere he didn’t know, only for them to come back early in the morning without the lady,” the police spokesperson narrated.
The herbalist further gave a vivid description of the woman he saw in the car and confirmed she was the same person in the photograph shown to him.
Oyeyemi further stated: “Awodero Michael also corroborated the herbalist’s statement that they were all at the shrine throughout the night, but the hotelier and his friend Saheed, who is an internet fraudster, left the shrine with the woman in the night and came back in the morning without her. Further investigation revealed that the woman must have been used for ritual purposes.”
The CP, she affirmed, has ordered that the suspects be charged to court immediately.