ABEOKUTA – The Ogun state Police Command has arrested a hotelier and three others for allegedly using a 38-years-old woman for rituals in Ogun State.
The victim, Adebayo Aminat Keji, has gone missing since September 16, 2022.
The suspects, Azeez Raimi, 21, Yusuf Shared, 33, Awodero Michael, 27, and Soneye Lateef, 39, were arrested following a complaint lodged at Shagamu Divisional Headquarters by the elder brother of the victim, Ahmed Adebayo, who reported that the victim left home since September,15, and her whereabouts not known since then.
According to Ogun State Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), SP Abimbola Oyeyemi, “upon the report, Commissioner of Police, CP Lanre Bankole, directed the anti-kidnapping unit of the State Criminal Investigation Departments, to unravel the mystery behind the sudden disappearance of the woman.
“In compliance with the CP’s directive, SP Taiwo Opadiran, led his team and embarked on a technical and intelligence-based investigation, which led them to one Soneye Lateef, a hotelier, whose hotel facility the victim was seen last.
“On interrogation, the hotelier admitted that the missing woman was in his hotel on that day on the invitation of her friend, Bose Fajebe, who came to the hotel with her boyfriend. The said Bose Fajebe invited the missing woman to join them, but as soon as she arrived, the hotelier picked interest in her and started having a romantic discussion with her. While the two of them were discussing, Bose and her boyfriend left them and went away.
“The hotelier further explained that the missing woman also left not quite long after her friend had left, and later in the night, he also left the hotel with two of his friends namely Saheed Yusuf and Michael Awodero to meet a herbalist Azeez Raimi who is to carry out an Ifa divination ritual for them, and that they were all at the shrine throughout the night.
“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 Shaeed outside the shrine and that 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. He also gave a vivid description of the woman he saw, and when her photograph was shown to him, he confirmed it as the woman he saw with Soneye Lateef and Yusuf Shaeed.
“Awodero Michael also corroborated the herbalist statement that they were all at the shrine throughout the night, but the hotelier and his friend Shaeed who is an internet fraudster left the shrine with the woman in the night and came back in the morning without her.
