On Monday, the Ogun State Police Command provided clarification, stating that instead of paying ₦1 million as previously reported, Mr Akinsanya Aremu, the father of the deceased 17-year-old secondary school student, Habeebah Akinsanya, gave them ₦30,000.
It was said that Aremu, a senior officer with So-Safe Corps, transferred the funds into a Moniepoint account supplied by the abductors in order to aid in the identification and capture of the individuals accountable for his daughter’s abduction.
The teenage girl was found to have been sexually assaulted by her kidnappers before being fatally macheted, according to the police. On Sunday, her body was discovered at her father’s farm close to Mile 6, a neighbourhood few metres from Ogun State Television in Abeokuta.
The law enforcement agency has also pointed an accusing finger at one of the farm labourers employed by the father of the victim. Residents of the community allegedly claimed they last saw the farm worker with the late Habeebah while entering the farm where her body was later discovered.
The Divisional Police Officer of Kemta Division, Abeokuta, CSP Olawale Famobuwa, disclosed this after receiving express approval from the Commissioner of Police, Abiodun Alamutu, to speak on the incident.
Famobuwa said, “The father of the deceased reported to the police station on Friday at about 9:30 pm that his daughter, Habeebah, who was helping her sister with the Point-of-Sale business, had not been found.
“He said that the sister had travelled and asked Habeebah to stand in for her, but someone invited her (the deceased) for a transaction, and she had been missing since then. It was recorded as a case of a missing person.
“He later returned on Saturday and said that some people had contacted the sister who owned the PoS business and were demanding money, so he sent ₦30,000 into the Moniepoint account, which we hope to use to track the receiver and arrest those behind the criminal act.
“So, what was paid was ₦30,000 and not ₦1 million. I have the receipt, and this was done to help facilitate the tracking of those responsible for the criminal act.
“We actually traced the transaction to somewhere in the Oke Egunya community, which is under Ibara Division, Abeokuta. We were there until 1 am early Sunday morning before we took a break and resumed the tracking later.
“We were later informed on Sunday that the corpse of the young girl had been found at her father’s farm in Mile 6, and when we arrived, we discovered that the girl had been raped before she was killed.”
Famobuwa went on to say that a resident of the community had reportedly witnessed a farm worker who worked for the victim’s father go into the bush with the deceased but did not come back with her. The farm labourer said that the girl will join him later because she was still busy on the farm when he was questioned.
Additionally, according to the police, a 15-year-old boy claimed to have described how he saw the farm worker, who had firewood on his head, running suspiciously as though trying to escape a crime scene.
Famobuwa expressed regret that the deceased’s father, a senior officer in the state-established security agency So-Safe, had been given crucial information by community members but had neglected to pass it on to the police.
He said that although the farm worker, who is rumoured to have absconded, is a main suspect, the police will take all legal measures to guarantee that all of the attackers connected to the crimes are apprehended.
Habeebah, a student of Lisabi Grammar School in Abeokuta, was scheduled to start SS3 on September 16 and would have turned 17 in October.
