Parents of murdered 14-year-old boy cry to Sanwo-Olu for intervention

Parents of of a 14-year-old boy, Qudus Anifowoshe, suspectedly murdered and dismembered for ritual purpose at Igbogbo Agunfoye Ire area of Ikorodu, Lagos, Southwest Nigeria has cried out to the state Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu to persuade the Nigeria Police to carry out thorough investigation into the murder of their son and bring the culprit to book.

Qudus was found dead, after being searched for days and the body was discovered mutilated, with vital organs, including his tongue, heart, private parts, among others removed.

Qudus was declared missing on the evening of October 14, at about 7:00p.m. and was said to have left home two hours prior to that time, while his mutilated body was later found after three days’ search in an uncompleted building behind the Ammes compound.

Qudus, who attended Arabic school on the same street where his family lives, was reported to have been sent home that fateful day to retrieve his Quran, but never returned until his mutilated body was found behind the said house precisely on October 18 by a search team.

The parents who were at the State Government Secretariat on Monday suspected that the police were trying to sweep the case under the carpet and demanded that justice must be done.

Both Mr. and Mrs. Taofeek Anifowose, made the plea while speaking with newsmen, urgingy all Lagosians to assist in ensuring that true justice was delivered in the case.

According to them, the appeal to Lagosians became imperative as they were not truly convinced that the police was actually carrying out any investigation as they had promised.

Anifowose, father of the deceased, while acknowledging that the suspect, one 17-year-old Daniel Amme, a student of Olabisi Onabanjo University (OOU), had since been arrested and now in police custody, said police never deemed it fit to conduct on the spot investigation at the scene where the mutilated body of Qudus was discovered, five days after he was declared missing.

He said the police had also not deemed it fit to come back to the scene as well as the home where the suspect lives with his grandmother, one Mrs. Comfort Omoyeghe Dickson, for any form of investigation.

According him, it was Daniel’s grandmother, Mrs. Dickson, who was surprisingly seen the following morning sounding bell round the street to announce that Qudus was missing and being looked for and that the police did not appear to be doing anything to ensure that justice was delivered.

He said besides the fact that the police never entered the Ammes premises to carry out any search despite series of evidences that abounded, they also did not interrogate the suspect.

He alleged that Daniel, since being detained, following his arrest, was brought by a senior lawyer, who said questions should be directed to him by the police and not the suspect.

“The police did not do any investigation they claimed to be doing. The senior lawyer who accompanied the main suspect, Daniel to the station said police should direct questions at him and not Daniel, that he should be asked questions and not Daniel,” Mr. Anifowose said.

“I am pleading with our dear Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu and the Lagosians to come to my rescue, Qudus is dead, but I plead for true justice in this matter.

“For the past 15 days, I have not had any rest. It was even Daniel’s grandmother that started sounding a bell round our street early morning the following day when Qudus got missing, announcing the incident, asking that the boy was being looked for by his parents,” he said.

Qudus’ mother, Mrs. Rasheedat Anifowose, said that men of the force had some days past came to pack some items from Amme’s house but were resisted by her and some residents who joined her in such protest.

Reacting to the accusation levelled against the police, Police Public Relations Officer, Lagos State Police Command, Bala Elkana said the family had no basis to accuse the police of not doing enough in investigating the matter.