Cleric, Another Remanded Over Alleged Murder Of LASU Graduate

https://www.channelstv.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/Untitled-1-Recovered-Recovered-Recovered-Recovered-6.png

Adedamola Ogunbode, a graduate of Lagos State University (LASU), is one of the four suspects who has been detained by the Nigerian Correctional Service in Ikoyi, Lagos.

The Celestial Church of Christ, Ileri-Oluwa Parish, Ojo, Sunday Whepetoji, and one Sheriff Adebayo were both imprisoned after failing to have their warrants renewed by a Lagos magistrate’s court in Yaba.

As the investigation progressed, the police had requested a court order to keep the suspect in their custody, but the court decided that the pair should be remanded in the Ikoyi Correctional Center.

Two months after he disappeared, Adedamola’s body was excavated last week from a shallow grave by homicide detectives from the State Criminal Investigation Department (SCID), Panti.

His killers, who had his phone stolen and had to transfer money from his account to his graveyard, then laid him to rest nearby the church. The deceased later vanished after telling his girlfriend he was going to the church on January 16 allegedly at the pastor’s invitation.

READ MORE: The Chief Judge of Akwa Ibom Pardons 55 Inmates

Adebayo, a church member, sent N70, 000 to the pastor’s personal account.

Ogunbode, a graduate of LASU’s political science program, was on the phone with his girlfriend when he arrived at the church’s grounds and had previously disclosed where he was before she vanished.

Whepetoji was apprehended by detectives during the course of the investigation after his family complained, but he denied ever seeing the victim.

The Ojo police station immediately received a report of the January incident as a missing person case. However, when the new Lagos Police Commissioner Olohundare Jimoh took office with the directive to conduct a thorough investigation of the murder and find the victim’s whereabouts, it only received the necessary attention.

The State Criminal and Investigation Department detained three suspects shortly after, including Ajisomo Olaoluwatomi, 25, and Sheriff Adebayo, who is alleged to be the prime suspect and the one who issued the order for Ogunbode’s execution.