A prayer session was on Saturday held at Adefalu Compound, Ojuekun Area, Ilorin, in Ilorin West Local Government Area of Kwara State for the repose of the soul of Miss Yetunde Lawal, a final year student of Kwara State College of Education, who was allegedly murdered for ritual purpose by a Facebook friend.
The prayer session conveyed by Muslim leaders in the Ojuekun/Sarumi area was led by Imam Alabidun, a popular Islamic scholar in the area.
Alabidun who prayed to Allah to grant rest to the deceased, also urged the parents to accept the death of Hafsat as the wish of Allah.
He also prayed to Allah to reward the perpetrators of the act with the right judgement adding that ‘Those who committed the act of ending the life of Hafsat will face the wrath of God in this earth and the world beyond.’
Speaking with reporters shortly after the prayers, the father of Hafsat, Alhaji Ibrahim Lawal said that the deceased was a resident in the family compound, adding that she recently secured a teaching job in a private Nursery/Primary school in the area.
‘She returned from her job at about 12.30 pm on Monday and went to attend the naming ceremony of one of her friends also in this area when she informed her friends that she was going to visit a friend.
‘We didn’t see her return on that day and she didn’t sleep at home. We reported at Oja-Oba Police station on Tuesday that she was missing from home after 24 hours adding that the tracking of her phone revealed that she was called on the phone by the suspect who later confessed that he murdered her.
‘Some of the items which included horn, black soap and charms recovered by the Police from the room apartment of the suspect clearly showed that Hafsat who is my second daughter was murdered for ritual purposes’, the father of the deceased who is a school teacher said.
Lawal, who said that he didn’t know the suspect as the boyfriend of Hafsat, said the boy that she knew was dating was preparing to come to his family to ask her hand in marriage.
He said, ‘About fifteen days ago, I told her to tell the boy I know as her boyfriend to bring his family to our family to formalise their marriage.’
Asked what he wanted the government to do on the matter, the father said that all he wanted was justice so that people could learn lessons from the incident and the society would be at rest.
‘I want to appeal to the Nigeria Police Force not only in Kwara state, the entire country and to our father, the Emir of Ilorin to carry out the investigation transparently so that Justice would be seen to have been done in this matter so that people would learn lessons and the society would be free of undesirable elements’, he said.
Yetunde who recently completed her National Certificate of Education (NCE) and studied Chemistry and Integrated Science was allegedly murdered by a Facebook friend identified as Abdulrahman Mohammed Bello, who is currently in police detention in Ilorin, Kwara state.
The victim was allegedly murdered on Tuesday at the rented apartment of the Islamic teacher and a cleric located in Olunlade area in the Ilorin South local government area of Kwara state.
The 29-year-old cleric allegedly called Yetunde on the phone while she was attending a naming ceremony of one of her friends in the Ojuekun area on Monday for a visit.
He allegedly murdered her and lied to the police that she died of Asthma before confessing that she was murdered.
