Mum was hit with charm, dismembered when she lost consciousness — Son of Osun widow killed by suspected ritualists

Sulaimon Yekeen, the son of a 52-year-old widow, Asiata Yekeen, who was recently dismembered by suspected ritualists in Ile-Ogbo, Osun State, tells why the family is demanding the death sentence for the suspects

What is your relationship with the deceased?

My name is Sulaimon Yekeen. I am a son to the woman killed by some ritualists in Ile-Ogbo, Osun State recently. My mother’s name is Asiata Yekeen.

Can you describe how she was killed?

What one of the suspects said that he was having an affair with my mum, is not true. He used to live in the same neighborhood as us and I have known him since 2009. I was learning carpentry at the time when he returned from Lagos with his wife and rented an apartment in a house beside ours. He is also a native of Ile-Ogbo. We used to relate very well and he used to eat in our house. But in 2017, my father died but before the demise of my father, the suspect packed out of his rented apartment in our area around 3am during the Ramadan period and ran away.

What do you think made him pack out?

He left the place after he stole four gallons of palm oil that were kept under the bed of his landlady, while she went for a vigil. It was after he had stolen the palm oil that he set the woman’s bed ablaze. After 30 minutes, he ran out. He didn’t know that I was out having my ablution. It was after he left that we heard a loud sound from his landlady’s room. We rushed out to see what happened and we saw fire. He left Ile-Ogbo after he committed that act. People searched for him but they could not find him.

But he said your mum was his concubine?

He never had any affair with my mother. We only knew him because he once lived close to our house. We had a cordial relationship then.

Why did your mum visit him the day she was killed?

My mother sold pepper and vegetables and Muideen’s mother sold moin moin at the same place and the suspect used to visit his mother. I have a younger sister who is married to a man in Kuta. One day, some people came to report my sister to my mother while he was with her. The complaint was that my sister used to take alcohol. He heard the complaint and told my mother that he would help her with a spiritual solution that would make my sister desist from the habit. He gave my mother two of the soaps he prepared, saying that she should give my sister one to use, while my mum should use the other one. But on the day she was killed, at about 6:30pm, he called my mother on the phone saying that the third item was ready and she should come for it. It was that night that they carried out the evil act.

Did he lure your mother to his residence?

Yes, he lured her to his house. He called her on the phone to come and collect the third soap. When the police arrested him, he confessed that another suspect, was already waiting in his house when he called my mum. When my mum entered the house, they hit her with a charm and she lost consciousness. They also collected her phone and removed the SIM cards. He stayed outside to watch while his accomplice killed my mum. It was after the accomplice had finished killing her that he came to inform him that he had completed the job. He removed all the parts he wanted and, thereafter, buried the leftover. He took the removed parts to the accomplice and one other, who were working with him.

How did you eventually know it was the first suspect that killed your mother?

There is a woman who lives very close to where Muideen stayed. She travelled a day after my mum was killed and returned five days after. It was the woman who told his former landlady, who attends the same church with her, that she saw my mum entering his house that same day she was declared missing. It was that clue that made us to start suspecting him and we reported to Amotekun. Before that information got to us, he met my elder brother and me, after my mother had been declared missing  and he told us that my mum probably ran out of town because of the stress she was exposed to by my sister, who was behaving badly. But when we went to his house after we got the clue that the deceased visited him, he fled. He was arrested in Lalupon.

What is your family’s demand?

We want justice. If he is not punished accordingly, he may do a worse thing next time. He does not deserve to live among people again. All of them involved should be killed. This is not the first time they would kill because they seem to have perfected the act.

(Saturday PUNCH)