Ayomide Adeleye, the 23-year-old philosophy student at Olabisi Onabanjo University, narrating the reason he killed church member 21-year-old Christiana Idowu said he did it because he needed money.
According to a Vanguard report on Sunday, Adeleye, now in custody at the Lagos State Police Command Tactical Unit in Ikeja, admitted to killing Idowu.
“I killed her because I had financial problems,” he stated, describing how he lured the victim to his home under the pretence of repairing her phone”.
The incident occurred when Idowu, a student of the Federal University of Agriculture Abeokuta (FUNAAB), visited Adeleye’s residence.
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“She came to our house around 5 pm on the day of the incident and asked me to repair her phone,” Adeleye recounted,”.
He then detailed the horrific moment of the murder, stating, “I just grabbed her, applied pressure. She started struggling. She didn’t really shout because I already suppressed her. I then squeezed her throat, and she gave up.”
Following the murder, Adeleye started planning on how to dispose of the body and extort money from the victim’s mother.
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He described digging a shallow grave behind his compound and burying Idowu’s body in the early hours of the morning.
“By 4 am the following day, I woke up, I continued digging. Honestly, I did not close my eyes till daybreak,” he said. In a cruel twist, Adeleye then contacted Idowu’s mother, demanding ransom.
“The first thing I said to her was, ‘Hello, madam. We have your daughter,’” he said. Through manipulation and threats, he managed to extort N360,000 from the grieving mother.
Narrating the circumstances after demanding three million from the mother, Adeleye said, “I know for a fact that she didn’t have three million. Even if she did not have that amount, I was ready to collect any amount because I desperately needed money no matter the amount.
“After going back and forth with her, she said she was able to get N350, 000.00 and I gave her a sporty bet account to pay the money in order to avoid being traced.”
He added that he later requested for an extra N10,000, which the mother had said was all she had left. Adeleye’s capture came through tracing his SportyBet account, where he had uploaded his National Identification Number.
“If I had not uploaded my NIN, it would just be an empty account,” he explained, revealing how his attempt to cover his tracks ultimately led to his arrest.
“But the moment I uploaded my NIN, all my personal details, my location, my address, my name, everything, was already on the sporty bet. The girl’s phone was also with me, they could have traced the location of the phone, that was how they got my location,” he added.
Expressing remorse for his actions, Adeleye stated, “I regret that I killed her because my mum and her mum were friends.”
He added, “I don’t deserve any mercy for what I have done. At the same time, I ask God to forgive me. What I did was wrong and I regret it.
“I feel remorseful for what I have done. If there’s any way I could be given a second chance, I want to be given one but I deserve death, honestly. I have been planning to kill myself. While I was in the guard room, I tried to look for any sharp object to cut myself so that I would bleed to death.”
