A 22-year-old Togolese, Sunday Adefonou Anani, alleged to have murdered his employer, Chief Opeyemi Bademosi, said yesterday that he only wanted to rob his boss with no intention of killing him.
The police said Anani killed Chief Bademosi, 67, a Lagos-based businessman, on Wednesday, October 31, 2018 at the latter’s No. 3B, Onikoyi Lane, Parkview, Estate, Ikoyi, Lagos, three days after the businessman had employed him as a cook.
The suspect was said to have, after the killing, fled to Ondo State, where the police tracked him to and arrested him on November 2, 2018.
Anani, who was interrogated by homicide detectives in the presence of a French-speaking lawyer, admitted stabbing his employer, an Ondo State indigene, thrice on the chest before escaping with his Samsung phone. The police said they found the phone on Anani when he was arrested in Ondo.
The suspect said, “I stabbed my oga on the chest three times because he was struggling with me when I entered his bedroom that morning. I first tied him up and dragged him to the floor. He asked me what I wanted and I said I wanted to rob him. He grabbed my foot and was struggling with me. I kicked him hard before stabbing him.
“He tried to take the knife but I took it from him and stabbed him twice again, making it the third time. I quickly left his bedroom when I heard a knock on the kitchen door. I left through the kitchen window. I threw away the knife and my apron that was already stained with blood.”
The Lagos State Police Public Relations Officer, Chike Oti, in a statement he issued, said that the journey that eventually ended Bademosi’s life began in the deceased’s home town of Ondo on October 25, 2018 when one Kofi Friday, 27, returned to Nigeria from Togo and called his compatriots, including the murder suspect, Anani, to his house at the Yaba area in Ondo town to deliver messages from home to them.
Oti stated, “When the suspect came to take his message, Kofi Friday, who is his cousin, delivered the good news that he had secured him a job as a cook in a rich man’s house in Ikoyi, Lagos, through one Agbeko Ayenahin, a male friend of his.
“The suspect was subsequently taken to the deceased’s house in Ondo State on Friday October 26, 2018. On Sunday, October 28, 2018, he brought the suspect to Lagos to start work as his cook.
“Three days after, on Wednesday October 31, 2018, the suspect, with the intention to rob the deceased, made his way to his room through the kitchen to the lobby and then to the room, which was the scene of crime, after he had observed that the woman of the house, Mrs Ebunola Bademosi, had left home for a transaction in a neighbourhood bank.
“According to the suspect, when he got to the deceased’s room and met him on the bed, he said, ‘Chief, I am not here to kill you.’ “
The PPRO stated that when Chief Bademosi asked Anani what he wanted, he replied “money.” But when the victim maintained he had no money at home, the suspect allegedly tied him up with a cloth and put him on the floor.
Oti added, “Anani went further to say that the deceased, while still on the floor, kicked him, causing the knife he tucked inside his pants to fall off. He said that the deceased crawled to pick the knife but he (suspect) was faster, and that as Bademosi struggled with him, the knife accidentally pierced him. He said that while he (Anani) was exiting the room, Chief Bademosi took the knife to stab him but he (Anani) kicked him and he fell down. He then took the knife and stabbed him twice on the chest, which added to three knife stabs.”
The police spokesman further alleged that when the suspect was done with killing the man, he entered the bathroom and threw away his apron already stained with blood and the kitchen knife used as the murder weapon.
Oti said that when the guard at the gate, Nura Mamudu, confronted Anani at the gate as he was fleeing and asked him where he was hurrying to, the suspect replied that Mrs Bademosi sent him on an errand.
The PPRO said, “Finding himself on the street, he came across some men loading cement into a Dangote truck. He assisted them and they rewarded him with a lift to Ondo State and the truck driver also gave him the sum of N500 in appreciation.”
Anani had initially vehemently denied committing the murder. But Oti revealed that the suspect broke down in tears and confessed to the act after he was confronted with evidence on the CCTV footage. He added that the suspect then led the investigation team to the crime scene and demonstrated/reconstructed how he carried out the killing.
