The Lagos State Police Command has
apprehended a butcher, Bidemi Akande, for the alleged murder of a commercial
motorcyclist, Francis Jibel, in the Ajah area of the state on May 12, 2012.
PUNCH Metro learnt that after killing the motorcyclist, Akande
allegedly stole his motorcycle popularly known as okada.
According to police reports, the
suspect allegedly hired the service of the deceased and on getting to Mobil
Road, brought out a knife and slit his throat open before fleeing with his
okada.
It was learnt that the 23-year-old
butcher was accosted by members of the Odua Peoples Congress a few metres away
from the scene of the crime after seeing him with the blood-stained bike.
The OPC members were said to have led
him back to the crime scene and on seeing the corpse handed him over to the
police.
Akande however admitted stealing the
okada but denied killing the victim. The suspect urged the police to be lenient
with him.
He said, “Around 7pm on the said
date, I was stranded along Mobil Road when I saw a motorcycle parked along the
road. There was blood on the bike but I did not see anybody on it. So, I
took it, hoping I could sell it because I was broke.
“I began pushing the bike because I
don’t know how to ride it but when I got to Gedegede, I was accosted by some
OPC members because of the blood stains on the bike. I confessed that the bike
did not belong to me and they forced me to lead them to where I had taken the
bike from.
“On getting there, we saw a corpse on
the ground with its throat slit open and a butcher knife beside it. That was
the first time I saw the corpse. The OPC men accused me of the murder and gave
me the beating of my life before handing me over to the police. But I wasn’t
the one that killed the okada rider. If I was the one, would
I have left the knife beside the corpse?”
Akande said he recently got married
and had no baby yet. He confessed that he usually took marijuana but said he
was in a sound state of mind on the day of the incident.
When contacted on the telephone, the
Police Public Relations Officer for the command, Mr. Joseph Jaiyeoba, confirmed
the incident but added that investigations were ongoing.