Two suspected cultists arrested over murder of Austrian returnee (photos)

The Lagos state police command have arrested two self-confessed members of a notorious cult group, Olakunle Ogunyemi, popularly known as Pedro, and Anthony Bello, popularly called T-boy, for the murder of an Austrian returnee, in Iba Housing Estate, Lagos State.

The deceased, Micheal Chinenu, who visited Nigeria to have his traditional marriage, was allegedly stabbed to death during a fight with the suspects at a football pitch in Iba in 2016.

According to reports, the deceased had gone to the football pitch to play football with a group of boys in his neighborhood. During the match, an argument ensued between the deceased and Ogunyemi which degenerated into a fight.

When it became clear that the deceased was overpowering the latter, Bello allegedly used a knife to stab the Austrian returnee in the chest, in his bid to assist his colleague. The duo immediately fled the scene, abandoning their opponent to his fate. Chinenu died a week later from complications that arose from severe loss of blood.

After two years of investigation, the suspects were recently arrested by operatives of the Federal Anti Robbery Squad (FSARS), Lagos State Police Command, in their hideout. Bello, a.k.a. T-boy, admitted to have stabbed the deceased in self- defense.

While confessing to the crime, he said

“I went to play ball at the football pitch when I heard an uproar. On reaching the scene, I saw a man engaged in a scuffle with Pedro (Ogunyemi ). In my attempt to intervene, the man slapped me. He left Pedro and faced me. He hit me on the ground twice and used a tyre rim to hit me. In defense, I rushed to an orange seller where I collected a knife and stabbed him in the shoulder. I managed to escape from the scene and went into hiding when I heard he was dead. In my hideout, I turned new leaf and got married. I thought the case must have died down since it’s been long it happened. I was at home with my wife and child when the police came with Pedro to arrest me.”

Ogunyemi, who is the only son of his widowed mother and an OND holder from the Lagos State Polytechnic, disclosed that he joined cultism at the age of 17. 

“He (the deceased) came and said I should ‘free’ Lexi, so that they could leave the field. I pretended not to have heard him and continued the discussion with Lexi. He repeated it again and I asked who he was and where he was from. This degenerated into quarrel before Bello came. I did not know how the deceased died but all I could remember was seeing him on the ground because other boys on the field took me to a corner to pacify me and prevented me from going to where the fight was going on. I later left Lagos for Ghana to hide, for fear of being arrested over the death of the man. I stayed there for sometime before I returned to Nigeria, only to be arrested.” he said

The Police say the suspects would be charged to court later today for armed robbery, cultism and murder.