1st February, 2025
By Jethro Ibileke
An Edo State High Court has set free a 16-year-old girl accused of killing her ex-boyfriend and four others, after allegedly feeding them with goat meat pepper soup.
Her walk to freedom followed a report by the Edo State Director of Public Prosecution (DPP), which absorbed her of complicity in the death of the victims.
According to the DPP, the victims died from generator fume poison, and not from pepper soup as alleged.
The incident happened in Afashio, a community in Etsako West Local Government Area of the State and was reported on 26 October, 2024, when his father, Mr Elogie Ezekiel, arrived at his son’s apartment around 6:30 am and saw lifeless bodies in the house.
Ezekiel reportedly found the body of a young man, Nurudeen, in the corridor. Moving further into the apartment, he discovered his son and his girlfriend also 16, lying lifeless on the bed.
Two other friends, both siblings, were found unresponsive in the sitting room.
All five were immediately transported to the hospital, where doctors pronounced them dead on arrival.
Some sources in the area stated that the victims consumed a pot of pepper soup they claimed was prepared by the for the five friends.
Three days later, the girl who was almost lynched by angry residents from the community, was rescued by police operatives from the Jattu Division.
The case was transferred to the State Criminal Investigation Department at the Command’s headquarters in Benin, for a thorough investigation.
In a twist of fate, however, the girl was found to be innocent, following autopsy report found that the five victims died from generator fume poison.
