Preacher Reportedly Slain at Ogun Motor Park, Laid to Rest Alongside Road

A graduate of Computer Science at the Olabisi Onabanjo University, Ago-Iwoye, Ogun State, Oluwatosin Onadipe, was said to have died after he was allegedly hit with an iron rod by an official of a motor park in Ago, Odogbolu Local Government Area of the state for preaching.

This is just as his body was said to have been buried by the roadside by officials of the Odogbolu Local Government Area after his body was dumped by police officers.

The father of the deceased, Raymond Onadipe, on Wednesday, that Oluwatosin left home on December 17 to attend a programme at the Redemption Camp but was unreachable after he had spoken with his brother on the phone.

Onadipe noted that after several efforts to reach him proved abortive, a case of a missing person was reported at the Ago Police Station. However, some days after, his phone rang and was picked up by someone who said he saw it on the roadside.

He said further, “On Friday, December 22, the brother tried the line again and it rang. The person who picked the call told us they found the phone on the road and that the owner could come and pick it at Ode-Remo. I was then suspicious that Ode-Remo and Ago are distant to each other and how come his phone got to Ode-Remo, Ogun State.

The next morning by 6 am, I went to Ode-Remo and I reported at the police station where I was assigned with police officers to accompany me to get the phone. When I got to the point of collection, the person introduced himself as the Seriki Hausa of the community. The Seriki told us that two of his boys who went to Ijebu-Ijesa in Ago-Iwoye were the ones who saw the phone. The police arrested those who found the phone and we moved to Ago Police Station.

On Monday (December 25), I was called that those who picked the phone took the police to where they picked it from, but they discovered that a corpse was buried along the roadside by health workers from Odogbolu Local Government Area, which was said to be his corpse, and that I have two options of either exhuming his body or leaving it where it was buried.

“I met with the local government chairman on the process of exhuming his body from where he was buried and presented his picture. There were disparities in the pictures I presented and the one presented by the LG chair who said they learnt it was a case of a hit-and-run accident. The disparities made me suspect foul play, but I decided to let it go and accept fate that my son was dead.

The father noted that the circumstances surrounding his son’s death took another turn when an eyewitness told his eldest son that the deceased was allegedly hit by an official of the Ago motor park when he was preaching on the premises on the day we last spoke with him, which the police confirmed after several back and forth.

When I told the police about the allegation of being hit at the motor park, they said truly they went there but they did not pick him up, and that he had no injuries on his body. Later, when one of the police teams that went to the park was asked to show the pictures taken at the scene, there was blood all over his body.

I queried why they left him alone and how it was possible for someone drenched in blood to walk that long distance from the park to where his body was found. I moved the case to the Area Command where the Area Commander ordered the arrest of officials of the park where my son was allegedly hit on the head and the police team that went to the park. I later learnt from the Area Command that the police actually picked him up after he was hit by the said motor park official but how he got dumped by the main road and his eventual death remained a mystery begging for an answer.

“I am appealing to the police authorities to bring the killers of my son to justice because I have been in sorrow since I learnt about his death,” Onadipe said

Confirming the incident to our correspondent, the state Commissioner of Police, CP Abiodun Alamutu, said the suspects had been taken into custody while preliminary investigation was on to unravel the circumstances behind his death.

The incident happened. The person alleged to have hit him with an iron rod and the police officers allegedly involved have been taken into custody.

We are conducting a preliminary investigation into the reported position of the family. We will come up with a statement on the issue in the next few days,” Alamutu said.