Police hunt UK deportee for killing father

Ibitayo Street

Samson Folarin

The Lagos State Police Command has declared a suspected drug addict, Babalola Rotimi (jnr.), wanted, for allegedly killing his father, Babalola Rotimi, and stabbing his mother, Adijat, in  Magodo Phase 2.

The state Police Public Relations Officer, SP Dolapo Badmos, said the suspect, who was deported from the United Kingdom, fled the scene of the crime and had remained elusive.

The mother, it was gathered, had been in a coma since the attack on Sunday and was receiving treatment in a general hospital in the state.

 

That Babalola, popularly called Junior, had been living with his parents on Ibitayo Street, Magodo, Shangisha, after returning from the UK.

His parents reportedly got him an apartment in the Ketu, Ikosi area, where he relocated to.

However, the suspect reportedly paid a visit to his parents on Saturday and stayed over till Sunday. He reportedly attacked them after a disagreement.

A security guard on the estate explained that Junior left his mother for dead.

He said, “Most of the security guards on the estate were not around and many residents had gone to church. By the time we returned, we heard a noise from the woman’s room as she cried out for help.

“We rushed there and met her in a pool of blood. She had been stabbed in the cheek and even in the eye area. There was a lot of blood in the house. We took her to the emergency centre in the Ojota area.”

Another source on the estate said the suspect had arrived in the house on Saturday.

He said, “The man just returned from the United Kingdom and we observed that he was always alone. He was living with his parents until recently when they got him an apartment in Ikosi, Ketu.

“But on Saturday, he came to pay them a visit and he slept over. He had an argument with the father that morning and he stabbed him to death. When the mother tried to intervene, he also stabbed her.

“Afterwards, he left the house. However, some minutes later, he returned to check if they were completely dead. He then shut the door against them before fleeing the area.”

Our correspondent learnt that the security guard in the house did not suspect anything until Adijat started screaming for help.

It was gathered that the guard would have been arrested and detained, but for the testimony of the woman, who before passing out, told the police that her son committed the crime.

“She is in a critical condition now at the hospital and she has not been able to throw more light on what transpired that night. Another person that can reveal what happened is the suspect, who is at large. But we are working on the theory that the man was mentally unstable due to his addiction to drug,” a police source said.

The police spokesperson, Badmos, said the police were trailing the suspect, adding that the case had been transferred to the State Criminal Investigation and Intelligence Department, Yaba.

“The father is dead, but the mother is responding to treatment. The suspect is at large, while effort is on to arrest him,” she said.