by Biodun Oyeleye

The Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS), Ilorin, Kwara State Police Command, has launched a man-hunt for an employee, who organised the robbery, rape and murder of his mistress and master.

The employee, an aide in the house of the deceased, whose identity police are yet to disclose, was said to have disappeared with another gang member after killing Mr. Michael Akhigbe, 65 and his wife, Juliana Akhigbe, 60.

The operation was carried out by the said employee and three others. The police said that the men dumped the bodies of the man and wife inside a well and locked it in order to conceal the crime. Juliana was raped before being killed.

The suspects took the couple’s Toyota Camry car, phones, ATM cards and other valuables. Although the couple’s employee escaped, two among the men that carried out the dreadful act have been arrested.

They have been identified as Adeyemi Aderinkomi and Timothy Ajayi. Aderinkomi and Ajayi, who are presently singing in police custody, said they were promised N200, 000 each to carry out the operation.

The incident happened on December 12, 2016, at Fate area of Ilorin. Aderinkomi and Ajayi, said that the operation lasted nine hours, during which time their partners, now at large, went to a nearby bank gallery with the couple’s Automated Teller Machine (ATM) cards and withdrew money.

It was also during that time that Ajayi pounced on 60-year-old Juliana and raped her. Aderinkomi, son of a high chief in a community at Ibadan, Oyo State, was alleged to have inscribed the title of his father on the car, so that it could pass police check points.

Aderinkomi, a security guard, working a stone throw from where the aged couple lives, said he and Ajayi were recruited by the two fleeing partners, on the excuse that they needed to collect some documents from Michael.

The state commissioner of police, Mr. Olusola Amore, said that the masterminds of the crime took the decision to strike because they had information that Michael withdrew a huge sum of money from bank and took it home. Amore added: “The suspects dumped the bodies inside a well to hide their tracks and locked it with a brand new padlock.”

Aderinkomi explained that one of the men that are yet to be arrested is called Soldier.

According to him, it was Soldier that told them that he had some documents he needed to collect from the couple’s apartment. Aderinkomi said: “They promised to give us N200, 000 each. We agreed and told them to alert us whenever they were ready. That night, they called us.

They were the first to enter the house; they met the woman and tied her. Then the man returned at about 7.30 or 8.00pm. He drove into the compound in his car; the two men jumped on him. He was surprised.

He started speaking with them in a language we didn’t understand. He, however, didn’t put up any resistance.

“Later, they ransacked the whole house and took some documents. They collected two ATM cards from the woman; one was for UBA and the other for Union Bank. They went to the bank and collected some money.

They gave us N20, 000 and asked us to take the car away.” The two men also allegedly told Aderinkomi and Ajayi, to take the couple’s television, phones and other belongings and look for buyers.

Aderinkomi further recalled: “We were on the operation until 4.30am. We left the two men there. It was in the morning I heard the couple was killed. I went to Timothy and together we went to meet the two of them. We went to them because we were troubled.

We complained to them about the killing; they assured us that they would handle everything. Honestly, the two of us didn’t know they would kill the couple. Up till now, they have not given us the N200, 000.”

Amore, who described Aderinkomi as a serial criminal, said that the Toyota Camry car, which the suspects took from the couple’s home, was set on fire to cover their tracks.

Aderinkomi, who further confessed to have once led a team of robbers to attack his biological sister, in order to steal her car, said he sustained injuries when he attempted to remove the battery from late Akhigbe’s Toyota Camry car, while it was burning.

Newtelegraphonline