Four teenagers arrested for murdering and beheading Sofiat Kehinde for alleged money rituals, on Monday, said they were inspired by the guidelines they read on Facebook.
The suspects were nabbed in Oke Aregba community, Abeokuta, Ogun State capital, while burning the head of the victim, said to be in a relationship with one of them.
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Four suspects, including the boyfriend of the victim, were immediately apprehended by the police.
They are Wariz Oladeinde, Abdulgafar Lukman, Mustekeem Balogun and Soliu Majekodunmi, who was said to be the boyfriend of the girl.
The police paraded the suspects at the State Headquarters, Eleweran, Abeokuta, on Monday.
Sofiat’s boy friend, Soliu Majekodunmi stated that when the victim visited him on Friday, he strangulated her and beheaded her immediately with the support from other accomplices.
Majekodunmi explained they had contributed money and purchased other ingredients needed for the rituals while awaiting for the day they would pounce on the lady, who was introduced to him, just in December, last year.
He blamed Mustekeem as being the arrow head of the heinous act, saying he was the one who brought the guidelines from the Facebook and pestered the group of friends to carryout the act.
He said “Last year December, Mustekeem gave me her number that I should be dating her. The first time Sofiat came to my house, I informed Mustekeem that she was around and that she had agreed to my proposal for a relationship.
“Also the second time Sofiat came I told Mustekeem, but he told that Sofiat is not a good girl and advised that we should use her (for money rituals). Mustekeem said he saw a guideline for Oshole (Money rituals) on Facebook and he had a screenshot of it.
“Since then, he has been disturbing me that we should use Sofiat for the rituals, but I didn’t agree with him. In fact, on many occasions, I lied to Sofiat that I am not at home just to dissuade her from coming.
“During the process, Mustekeem had ensured that we all make contributions towards other ingredients needed for the rituals. So, eventually, Sofiat came to my house on Friday. I was inside my room with her while Mustekeem was outside. Later Mustekeem told me that we should go ahead and use her, after all, other ingredients for the rituals are ready.”
The prime suspect told newsmen that he regrets his action and urged other youths who are eager to make money quickly to wait for their time.
“I have regrets. If I knew it would end up like this, I would not have gotten myself involved the act. My advice to those who don’t want to wait for their time is that, they should please wait for their time,” he said.
Sunday Olatunbosun who spoke on behalf of the slain girl’s family urged the police to revenge for the death of Sofiat.
He said “We want justice for Sofiat and I am speaking on behalf of the family , all what we want is justice, noting else.
“Her mother is a very critical situation , even we needed to give her sleeping pills before she was able to sleep. Her father is late and the situation of her mother is very critical at the moment. We needed to take her away from Abeokuta to Ifo area because of the incident”.
The State Police Public Relations Officer, Abimbola Oyeyemi while parading the suspects, blamed the incident on bad parenting and urged religious leaders to ensure they play relevant roles towards restoring culture of hard work and morals into the society.
He said “This can only be described as superlative degree of callousness , it is despicable and it is barbaric at this time for somebody to still have it in mind that until they use the life of a human being like them before they can get money and more so, what is it that teenagers want to use money for that will lead them to this type of heinous crime, it is still beyond the comprehension of normal human being
“I want to advise that many parents have failed in their responsibilities, this is a result of bad parenting, it is a result of complete failure of parental responsibility because if this thing has not been encouraged by the parents, I do not believe that any properly brought up child will want to embark on this type of criminality.”
