Two aides of late Prof. Albert Ilemobade, the former Vice Chancellor of Federal University of Technology, Akure, (FUTA), have allegedly confessed to the murder of the academic claiming that he was murdered so they could steal his Toyota RAV4 jeep.
The two suspects, namely Olayemi Bamitale (driver) and Daniel Ita (gateman) were on Monday, June 29, paraded at the Ondo State Police Command headquarters in Akure. The suspects allegedly confessed to strangling their boss without the knowledge of any family member.
Prior to the discovery of Prof. Ilemobade’s decomposing body in the garage of his house at Ijapo Estate, Akure on Sunday, June 28, 2015 about a week after he was declared missing, he was reported to have been abducted by gunmen.
PUNCH reports that Bamitale had allegedly been arrested a few months before by the police and sacked by the late VC for stealing the same Toyota RAV4 jeep but was released on bail after much pleading by the friends of the deceased. He was reported to have returned the jeep after searching for a buyer without success. Bamitale allegedly still used to sneak into the house to visit the gateman even after he was sacked.
According to Bamitale, he and the gateman had decided to steal the vehicle during one of their numerous visits and that they were advised by a herbalist to kill their boss before stealing the vehicle.
He said, “Daniel (Ita) told me about the herbalist on the telephone. When I visited him, he told me that the herbalist said if we wanted to go scot-free after stealing the vehicle, we must kill Baba (Ilemobade) and that we must take some sand from that house so that there won’t be any problem afterwards.
“Daniel lured Baba to the security room on the pretext that there was a power surge. Baba thereafter went to the security room. It was there that we strangled him. We dragged his remains to a store beside the garage and dumped his body there. We put a picture on his chest so that if the body is later found, they will think that it was those who killed him that dropped the picture.”
After the act, Bamitale revealed that they went into Prof. Ilemobade’s room to collect the car key and also carted away a laptop, two phones and the sum of N7,000.
Bamitale said, “When we were about leaving the Ijapo Estate, the policemen wanted to stop us, but they allowed us to go when they saw Daniel (Ita). It was around 11pm.
“The following morning, we took the vehicle to Lagos, but we could not find any buyer. We left the place for Ijebu Ode.
“Some officers of the Federal Road Safety Corps impounded the vehicle in Ijebu Ode because the documents were not complete.”
According to the driver, since they no longer had any money with them, they had to sell the laptop and two phones to secure the release of the car from the FRSC who fined them a sum of N3,000.
“One of Daniel’s (Ita) kinsmen in the Epe area of Lagos agreed to buy the phones and he gave us N3,000 to secure the release of the seized car.
“When we returned to Ijebu Ode, the person I contacted to buy the vehicle called the police and that was how we were arrested,” Bamitale added.
On his part, the gateman, Ita blamed Bamitale for luring him into the evil act saying that the deceased did not deserve the treatment he got as he was always very nice to them. He also claimed that the idea to steal the vehicle had come from Bamitale who convinced him that if they were able to steal the car, they could sell it and start their own business.
Ita said, “He said the best way to make it succeed was to kill my boss. I refused. I said he could steal money, tie him down and do anything, but not to kill prof. He insisted that if we did not kill the man, he would trace us. I now agreed with him. Around 9pm on the fateful day, he called me and I came out to meet him. He still insisted that we must kill the man for us to succeed.
“He told me to lure the man outside. I stood at his window and I lied that there was a power surge. When he came out, Bamitale strangled him.”
According to the state Commissioner of Police, Isaac Eke, the command received information from the command in Ogun State when Ita and Bamitale were arrested with the deceased jeep with registration number GGE 589 CF.
He described the suspects as evil and added that they had dropped the slippers and wristwatch of the deceased at the gate of his residence which led the police and family members to believe that he had been kidnapped.
He said, “The professor was gruesomely murdered by the people he fed on a daily basis. On this note, I want to appeal to the people to always know the background of those they want to employ as domestic workers.
“They could also should contact the police to help in conducting an investigation.”
He said that the deceased’s family had taken his body to the morgue and that the suspects would be made to face the full wrath of the law.
