Four men have been arrested in connection with the sudden disappearance of a 36-year-old woman, Aminat Keji Adebayo, who has gone missing since 15 September, 2022.
The four suspects arrested by operatives of the Ogun State Police Command for their alleged complicity in the disappearance of the woman are Azeez Raimi (21yrs), Yusuf Saheed (33yrs), Awodero Michael (27yrs) and Soneye Lateef (39yrs).
Their arrest was contained in a release, AZ:5310/OGS/PRO/VOL.7/168.10/11/2022, by the state Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), SP Abimbola Oyeyemi.
They were arrested following a complain lodged at Shagamu Divisional Headquarters by the elder brother of the victim, one Ahmed Adebayo, who reported that the victim left home since on the 15th of September and her whereabout is unknown since then.
Oyeyemi stated that, upon the report, the state Commissioner of Police, Lanre Bankole, directed the Anti-Kidnapping Unit of the State Criminal Investigation Department to unravel the mystery behind the sudden disappearance of the woman.
“In compliance with the CP’s directive, the SP Taiwo Opadiran-led team embarked on technical and intelligence-based investigation, which led them to one Soneye Lateef, an 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, one 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 Ogun Police image-maker stated in the release.
He said 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.
The hotelier, Oyeyemi said, claimed to have gone with his two friends 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 Saheed outside the shrine,” he stated.
Oyeyemi added that the Ifa priest also said the hotelier and his friend 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 Saheed.
“Awodero Michael also corroborated the herbalist’s statement that they were all at the shrine throughout the night, but the hotelier and his friend Saheed, who is an internet fraudster, left the shrine with the woman in the night and came back in the morning without her.
“Further investigation revealed that the woman must have been used for ritual purpose,” SP Oyeyemi further stated in the release.
He, however, disclosed that the state Commissioner of Police, Lanre Bankole has ordered that the suspects be charged to court without further delay.
