The pastor in charge of Celestial Church of Christ, Ileri Oluwa Parish, Lagos State University (LASU), Ojo, Sunday Whepetoji, 51, and one Sheriff Adebayo, 26, have been remanded in the custody of the Nigerian Correctional Service (NCoS) over the alleged murder of Ogunbode Quadri Adedamola, 28.
They were remanded at the Ikoyi custodial centre yesterday afternoon by a Lagos Magistrate’s Court in Yaba.
The police had sought an order of the court to keep the suspect in their custody as investigations progressed but the court ruled that the duo be remanded in the Ikoyi correctional centre.
Adedamola’s body was exhumed last week from a shallow grave by homicide detectives from the State Criminal Investigation Department (SCID), Panti, two months after he went missing.
It was gathered that his body was buried near the church by his killers who stole his phone and transferred N1.8m from his account.
The deceased who had told his girlfriend he was going to the church on January 16 allegedly on the invitation of the pastor, went missing afterwards.
According to reports, N70,000 of the money was sent to the pastor’s personal account by Adebayo, a member of the church.
Unknown to his killers, Ogunbode, a Political Science Education graduate from LASU, was on the phone with his girlfriend when he arrived at the church premises and had told her where he was before his disappearance.
In the course of investigation following complaints from his family, Whepetoji was apprehended by detectives but he denied ever seeing the victim.
Although this incident occurred in January, there was no progress in the investigation until last Monday when the new Commissioner of Police (CP) Olohundare Moshood Jimoh directed a thorough investigation to unravel the whereabouts of the victim.
A few days after the directive, the police arrested three suspects including Sheriff Adebayo, 26, alleged to be the prime suspect and the one who ordered that Ogunbode be executed.
Also arrested by the police was
Ajisomo Olaoluwatomi, 25, who is still being interrogated at the SCID Panti.
Sources told The Nation that the arrest of the suspects led to Thursday’s uncovering of the shallow grave where Ogunbode was buried by his killers.
Of the N1.8m removed from the deceased’s account, Adebayo sent N70,000 to the pastor, N300,000 to Olaoluwatomi and yet to be disclosed amounts to three other suspects still at large including one Ajisomo Teniola.
Thenation
