Police arrest man after trying to kill mum for money

The police in Lagos have arrested a 29-year-old suspect, Taiwo Akinola, for allegedly attempting to murder his mother at their home in Ayobo, a Lagos suburb, on Sunday.

The police said they received a distress call from neighbours who saw the battered head of the victim, Alice Akinola.

According to the police, the suspect lives with his mother and her grandchild, a 14-year-old boy named Faruk.

“On this fateful day, Taiwo went to the victim’s provision store in front of their apartment and told his mother to meet him inside the house for an important discussion and at the same time sent his nephew, Faruk, to go buy him a white handkerchief and a stick of cigarette,” the police said in a statement.

“As soon as the victim, Alice Akinola entered the house, the suspect attacked her, smashing her head with a plank, pressing iron and a UPS charger to ensure she didn’t survive the ferocious attack.

“However, the cat was let loose (out of) the bag when Faruk came back looking for his uncle to deliver the message he was sent. He went to his grandmother’s store but she wasn’t there, which made him go straight to the house where he met his grandmother in a pool of blood.

“The boy who was in shock raised an alarm and this attracted neighbours to the scene.”

The police said while interrogating the suspect he confessed to being a “staunch member” of the notorious Aiye confraternity and that he wanted to kill his mother to advance his cyber fraud business to “the bloody yahoo plus or ritual level.”

“The suspect disclosed that he was asked to kill his mother in order to have more money.

“When his room was searched, two calabashes with one containing human skull and the other, a mixture of dark concoction, a plank perforated with nails and stained with blood, a pressing iron stained with blood, a white handkerchief with which he wanted to scoop the victim’s blood, a bottle containing oil and labelled ‘Back To Sender’ were found in his room.

The suspect’s mother had been taken to an undisclosed hospital where doctors are battling to save her life, the police said.

“While the suspect is in police detention, the crime scene has been secured for further investigation by the police forensic experts attached to the Homicide section SCIID Panti, Yaba.”

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