A 30-year-old community leader has been arrested by the Ogun Police Command for allegedly killing a police corporal, Gbenga Adeboyejo, over a N120,000 business deal.
Parading the suspect on Monday at the scene of the crime in Opeji, Odeda Local Government Area, the Ogun Commissioner of Police, Ahmed Iliyasu, said the deceased until his death was attached to the Odeda Police Division.
Iliyasu said that the deceased was a business partner to the suspect who deals in charcoal.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the commissioner led men of the command to exhume the corpse from a shallow grave in a thick forest in Opeji village where it was allegedly buried by the suspect.
Iliyasu disclosed that the crime was committed on Nov. 24.
He said the deceased was reported missing on Dec. 1 by his father, Joseph Adeboyejo, who lives in Ilorin, Kwara, after he stopped receiving calls from him.
“On Dec. 1, Joseph Adeboyejo reported to the police that his son visited him in Ilorin and explained a charcoal business he was doing with one leader of the Tiv community in Opeji village.
“He stated further that while the corporal was with him, he received a call from the said Tiv man informing him that his charcoal was ready, consequent upon which he left Ilorin to meet the man.
“He explained further that his son called him on the phone when he reached the man’s house but added that since then he had not seen him nor heard from him,’’ he said.
The Odeda Divisional Police Officer, Baba Mohammed , he added, swung into action and arrested the suspect and two others who had earlier contacts with the deceased.
“The case was transferred to the State Criminal and Investigation Department where the suspects were put under serious investigation and forensic analysis.
“This man who was the prime suspect later confessed to killing the police corporal by hitting him on the head with a heavy plank of wood in order not to refund the sum of N120,000 paid to him for the charcoal.
“He further confessed that he buried the deceased in a shallow grave in the forest,” the commissioner said.
The commissioner said the suspect would be charged to court.
The suspect, while speaking with journalists, said he regretted committing the act, adding that that the policeman attacked him first.
“He complained that his goods were late and we started arguing. He struck me with wood and I also struck him with wood.
“I didn’t intend to kill him. When I realised he was dead, I dug a grave to bury him,” he said. (NAN)