Why I Killed the Woman I Slept With - Suspect

When the headless body of a woman was discovered in a sack near a cemetery at Oke Aremo area of Ibadan on Friday, April 20, 2012 many who saw it or heard about it rained curses on the perpetrator(s) out of pity that a human being could be so callously handled. Little did they know that their prayers that God should expose the killer(s) would be answered sooner than they expected. 

 Two days after, many were shocked to their marrows when the news spread that the police had arrested the person who committed the dastardly act, and that it was no other person than the deceased’s lover, Mr Asimiyu Ayantayo. The arrest of the man also led to the revelation of the identity of the woman
whose name was given as Mrs Sekinat Emiola. Taking Sunday Tribune down the memory lane of events that occurred before his mother’s death, the first son of the woman, who gave his name as Hafiz Amidu said:

 “My mother had called me on Thursday, April 19, asking if I would come to her place at Abebi area that day. I replied her that I would come after leaving my workshop. I knew Asimiyu as a herbalist whom my mother used to patronise. I never knew they were in a relationship until this incident. “At about 10a.m on that Thursday, the man called me and asked me to come to his house at Oke Aremo. I got there and met him at his door, preparing to go and take his bath. 

He did not allow me to enter his room as usual as he told me that he was travelling and would be back on Sunday, asking me to come back then. “On my way out of the area, I met one of his sons and gave him N10. He asked me whether I did not see my mother inside and I replied him that his father did not allow me in. I tried my mother’s number but it was switched off. I tried Asimiyu’s own too, it was also switched off. I left for my shop. In the evening, I went to my mother’s place around 8p.m., but she had not arrived home. My sister who lived with my mother told me that she said she was going to Oke Aremo. 

Then, I called the man’s number again and he answered, saying that he had already told me that he was going to Ijebu Ode. He confirmed that my mother came to his house but had left. I went to my house that day. “On Friday, I continued to ponder on my mother’s whereabouts. When my sister told me that our mother was yet to return home, I called my maternal aunt and uncle to inform them. It was after this that I learnt of the headless body that was discovered at Oke Aremo, but I never linked my mother with it. 

My aunt called Asimiyu and he gave different versions of my mother’s movement after she supposedly left his house. When I heard what he said, I called him and narrated the story of the headless body found but he replied me that he was not around. “On Saturday, I went to my mum’s place but my aunt asked me to go to my shop. Later she called me and asked me to come to Yemetu Police Station, from where we were taken to the mortuary.

 Immediately we saw my mother’s wrapper outside the mortuary, we knew it was my mother that was killed. “On Sunday, my aunt received a call from a man who called himself Asimiyu’s brother who told her I should come. It was from them we learnt that Asimiyu had been arrested by the police. They told us that they guessed he killed my mother from what his daughter said and the way he was behaving in Ijebu Ode whenever he received my call. 

They were the ones who lured him to Total Garden area of Ibadan on the pretence that they wanted to collect money from a client who wanted to engage them as drummers. One of his brothers reportedly kept him waiting in company of others while he went to Yemetu police station to inform law enforcement agents of their brother’s perceived act.

 That was how the police arrested him.” Speaking with journalists at the police headquarters on Monday, the Commissioner of Police in Oyo State, Mr Tambari Yabo Mohammed, described Asimiyu’s act as ungodly, saying nobody would accept such. According to Mohammed, “this man called Asimiyu Ayantayo butchered his woman friend after having carnal knowledge of her. 

He thereafter severed her head and hands from the wrist with a cutlass and got an accomplice in one Femi Isiaka who helped him in carrying the body in a sack to a nearby cemetery where it was dumped. He also collected the woman’s blood in a container that was recovered in his room. “The suspect has confessed to the ungodly act, saying that the deceased’s husband laced her with a charm called magun, and very soon, he will be charged to court,” the police boss said. He warned the people of the state to be wary of ritual killers and report anyone seen or suspected of committing such act.

 Saturday Tribune gathered that the suspect said that he slept with the deceased on Thursday April 19, not knowing that her husband had laced her with magun. Asimiyu had reportedly added that the woman started foaming in the mouth after he had sex with her, and she eventually died. Claiming that he did not know what to do, Asimiyu decided to cut off the woman’s head and hands “so that she would not be easily recognised.” He also drained the blood in a container so as not to leave a trace.

 On how he got involved, the second suspect, Femi, said he was asked by Asimiyu to buy a sack with N400 on Thursday. “He came to me before 5a.m., on Friday and asked me to follow him to his room. When we got there, he said I should swear an oath of secrecy with him. He gave me a concoction to drink, after I helped him in putting a tied sack on his head. I followed him to the cemetery side where he dumped the bag. It was on our return to his room that I saw the head. I exclaimed but he reminded me of the oath and said I should keep the secret.

 He went to bury the head and the hands at his backyard,” he said. However, a funny twist came into the whole story when the suspect made good his threat to kill himself if the police would not kill him, as he was found hanging in the toilet of the cell where he was kept at the State Criminal Investigation Department (SCID), Iyaganku, Ibadan on Wednesday. Saturday Tribune gathered that, Ayantayo committed the act in the dead of the night when others detainees were asleep. He was said to have removed his shirt, climbed the toilet which was made with brick and is about two and a half metre high, to get to the small opening barricaded with iron rods.

 He had tied a sleeve of the shirt to one of the iron rods while the remaining part of the shirt was made to form a noose. It was also learnt that the second suspect, Isiaka, also started behaving funny that he had to be restrained with leg chain and handcuffs and referred to a hospital for clinical assessment of mental state. It was, however, gathered that he had been charged to Iyaganku Magistrate’s Court 3 on Thursday on a two-count charge of conspiracy to commit felony to wit murder and murder. The magistrate was reported to have ordered that he be remanded in prison custody while the case was adjourned till May 22.