I grabbed my father’s neck, strangled him, then got a knife to cut his private parts —20-year-old suspect

A 20-year-old suspect, Ridwan (surname withheld), who allegedly strangled his septuagenarian father, Pa Yisau Adewale, to death before removing his penis, scrotum and other body parts, has said that he was pushed into the act because of hunger and the fact that he couldn’t get regular menial jobs to engage in for survival.

The suspect made the disclosure in an interview with Saturday Tribune at the State Criminal Investigation Department, Eleweran, Abeokuta in Ogun State Police Command.

The suspect also made it known that he initially escaped from his family residence at Oshoko Village in Ijebu North Local Government Area of the state when his younger brother came in, saw their father dead and covered with blood, and raised the alarm. However, he was eventually nabbed hours after a search for him began.

It was learnt that the suspect was initially apprehended by the Ogun State Community, Social Orientation and Safety Corps, codenamed So-Safe Corps, before he was handed over to Ogbere Divisional Police Headquarters, from where he was transferred to the State Criminal Investigation Department (SCID), Eleweran, Abeokuta, for further investigation.

Before the arrest of the suspect on Thursday, August 31, officers of the So Safe Corps reportedly got information on the murder of the father, aged 75. On getting to the house, they were shocked to see the man’s lifeless, blooded body while the alleged perpetrator had fled.

Immediately, they, with the support of vigilante and community members, started searching for the suspect and eventually found him in a bush where he hid. He thereafter confessed to strangling his father, after which he used a knife to remove the body parts he needed for money ritual.

He told the So Safe Corps that he only removed the private parts, also, known as Adam’s Apple, gogongo in Yoruba language, and four teeth of his father as requested by a native doctor he identified as Baba Kekere.

When asked about the whereabouts of the native doctor, he was said to have refused giving the details, but in an interview with Saturday Tribune at the State CID, he disclosed the name of the native doctor as Baba Awogbemi, who lives at a distance from Iyana Church area of Ibadan.

Saturday Tribune learnt his mother told Homicide detectives that three days before the suspect eventually killed his father, he had made the same attempt, strangling him when others were not around. Then, fortunately for the man, members of his family who went to their farm arrived home, forcing Ridwan to quickly loosen his grip on the father’s neck.

Shocked by the act, his mother and siblings asked why he attempted to kill his father, and he gave the excuse that Pa Yisau offended him by beating him, which made him to strangle him in retaliation. He was said to have prostrated and begged his father for forgiveness. The soft spot for a son made Pa Yisau to forgive Ridwan immediately, while he ordered his wife and children not to reveal the suspect’s misdeeds to neighbours. Unknown to the entire family, the young man was waiting for an opportune time to carry out his intention.

On the day he eventually did, it was gathered that he was supposed to go with his mother and siblings to the farm but he feigned illness, saying that he was not strong enough to cope with farm work.

In the interview with Saturday Tribune, Ridwan, an indigene of Ibadan, Oyo State, explained himself thus: “I live with my elder half brother in my father’s house at Iyana Church, Ibadan. My father had a wife before marrying my mother as the second one. The first wife was still married to my father before his death but was living in another house in Ibadan also. However, my father and mother, in her 40s, live in Oshoko Village at Area J4, Ogun State. They were into farming.

“I stopped schooling at JSS 3 and became an apprentice in generator repair. After I concluded training and got my freedom, I went to stay with my parents in the village to find farm jobs to do. This was because I was finding it difficult to survive, as I was hungry all the time.

“Initially, we were getting jobs from those who wanted to repair generators but it came to a point we were not getting such to do again. I joined my parents in December 2022. The menial jobs were coming bit by bit, and it was a little better than when I was in Ibadan.”

How I thought of killing my father for ritual

“Like I said before, I was stricken by poverty. I was always hungry; also my siblings. We are four from my mother to my father but one of us, a female, had been taken to someone to be a maid. Three of us were living with my parents in the village.”

Native doctor’s factor

“Before I went to the native doctor, called Baba, my father had taken me there to inquire about what I was destined to do to succeed in life. My father told me to write the job I would like to do so that the native doctor would look into it.

“When I went back to ask him for what I would need to do to be wealthy, he didn’t recognize me as the boy who once came to him with his father, so he asked me to bring a man’s private parts for him to make for me a money ritual. He was also living in our community but distant from our residence.

How I killed my dad

“In the evening of the fateful day, I was at home with my father while my mother had gone to the farm. I came in from outside where I was to pick my small phone from where I put it. My father was in his room and called me from there as I turned to leave. He handed me his cup, asking me to get him some water.

“As I took the cup from him, I just grabbed him on the neck and strangled him. He struggled until he became lifeless on his bed. As I saw that he was dead, I took a knife and cut off his penis and scrotum. They were the body parts I was told to bring for the money ritual.

“I also used the knife I held to slice his neck to remove his head, but it was the type used to peel cassava and was not good for the job, so I removed his Adam’s apple. Shortly after, my younger brother came in. As I heard him, I shut the door of my father’s room. Unknown to my brother what I had done, he first went to another room. I went out of the house and came back.

“It was when my brother went to daddy’s room that he saw his lifeless body in blood. He screamed and raised an alarm. I covered his mouth, asking him not to shout. However, he did not heed to my plea. He continued to shout. Since I had already cut the body parts I needed from my father, I quickly fled, using our back door as a way of escape, and went with them.

“I thought of quickly returning to Ibadan to give the body parts to the native doctor. I hid in an unoccupied hut. Meanwhile, the news had spread, and security people as well as vigilante group were searching for me. They found me in my hiding place at midnight.”

It was learnt that his mother has been excommunicated from the deceased’s family along with her other children. It was said that she was not allowed to pick a pin from the family residence, save the clothes she wore on the day the sanction was carried out.

In his comment, the Commissioner of Police, Abiodun Alamutu described the suspect’s conduct as bastardly, saying that the command’s detectives were making efforts to apprehend his accomplice(s).