Posted by By MURPHY GANAGANA and JACOB EDI, Abuja on
It was cruel fate for 38-year- old Mrs. Taiwo Oluwayinka, a thrift (Esusu) collector, whose throat was sliced with a knife and her body left to decompose by an evil landlord in Abuja.
It was cruel fate for 38-year- old Mrs. Taiwo Oluwayinka, a thrift (Esusu) collector, whose throat was sliced with a knife and her body left to decompose by an evil landlord in Abuja.
The sad news has thrown residents of Idu-Karmo, a ghetto settlement in the FCT into shock, fear and panic following the discovery of the decomposed body.
But until that black Wednesday morning when she was seized, pinned to the ground and a sharp knife driven into her neck, the late Taiwo never suspected Emeka Ibe, the landlord of an 8- room apartment in her neighbourhood, who was one of her customers in the Esusu business.
As usual, she had visited Emeka's house at about 8.30 am on the fateful day to collect the N100 which he contributes daily, unknown to her that rather than swelling his deposit, he had for quite some time, nursed an evil plot.
Shortly after collecting his daily contribution, the late Taiwo, a mother of four had wished her customer a happy day and made to go , when four boys emerged from one of the rooms and seized her.
They reportedly pinned her down, sliced her throat with a sharp knife, and dumped her lifeless body in one of the rooms vacated recently by a tenant with a plan to dispose it off late at night.
Though there are several other tenants in the compound which houses only bachelors, the late Taiwo's shrill cries before her final breath could not attract anyone's attention as all other tenants had gone to their respective places of work except the landlord and his partners in crime.
With their mission accomplished, Emeka and his agents of death instantly shared a sum of N19,000 in possession of their victim, and commenced plans on how to cash a cheque of N150,000 which they also found in the woman's bag.
However, the presence of their co-tenants who stayed awake late into the night aborted the plot to throw away their victim's body, which they locked up in the empty room next to that of the landlord.
Amazingly, for five days, they slept with the corpse in the same compound until the stench from the decomposed body aroused the curiosity of other tenants who drew the attention of the landlord to it and insisted that the room be forced open.
Expectedly, besides dismissing fears of his tenants by claiming that two big rats died in the room, Emeka played several tricks to dissuade his suspicious tenants from forcibly opening the door to the house of horror.
His bag of tricks, however, emptied on Sunday when Pastor Ikechukwu Okafor, one of the tenants led others to break the door of the room where they were confronted with the gory sight of Taiwo's naked and decomposed body, with a drumful of sand packed by the head, which the police said, was intended to bury her in the room.
Following the discovery, the police of Karmo Divisional Headquarters who were alerted on the incident swung into action and arrested four of the evil men.
Among those, being detained at the Karmo police station are Chukwudi, Nonso, Uzor and Emeka Ibe, the Anambra State born landlord.
Speaking to Daily Sun in police custody, Emeka who said he dropped out of Favour International Secondary School, Tacha, a suburb of Abuja, as a JSS II student in 2003 after the death of Christian Ibe, his elder brother, confessed to the crime, but denied personally stabbing the deceased.
"I didn't stab her. It was Chinedu, who is now on the run. What happened was that on that day, last Wednesday, she came to me as usual for my daily contribution of N100.
After I gave her the money, Chinedu, one of the three boys living in a room in my compound came and stabbed her in the neck with a knife.
"After that, he pushed her into the room next to my own which is empty. Then, Uzor told me that Chinedu is a thief and he warned me that I should not tell anybody. He said if I tell anybody, they will shoot me, so I kept quiet."
But his explanation of dining with the devil from several poles afar, was punctured as revelations came on how they shared the money found in the late Taiwo's handbag. "Yes, we saw N19,000 cash and a cheque of N150,000. We shared the money and I got N4,000 out of it. I don't know what came over me," he confessed.
Soaked in tears, the deceased's husband, Pastor Yemi Oluwayinka narrated how his beloved wife of 10 years bade him farewell on her journey of no return.
"Last Wednesday morning, I left home before her. But I was told she came back to change her dress before going to commence collection of her daily contribution business.
"And she normally returns home at about 5 pm but on that day, I waited for her until 9.30 pm. When she didn't come home, I contacted one of my friends, Mr. Johnson Akinjogbin, and we raised a search party which went through several hospitals and police stations in the FCT without a clue of her whereabouts until on Sunday when a boy who knew we were looking for a missing person ran to inform us of the discovery of my wife's body in Emeka's house. See how wicked people can be!"
In the meantime, the police have evacuated the remains of Mrs. Oluwayinka from the scene of incident to a hospital for autopsy, but the DPO Karmo police station, Mr. Aliu Dauda (SP) who confirmed the incident, declined further comments. He said he was not competent to speak on the matter.