Her residence
The police in Lagos are battling to unravel the killers of a former director of the Lagos State Government, Mrs. Oluremi Jaiyesimi. The 63-year-old was found dead in her house in the Abraham Adesanya Estate, Ajah area of the state. Her body was not discovered until a week after she died.
By then, her body was said to have been decomposing with maggots emanating from the corpse. Our correspondent learnt that a neighbour, who was suspicious that something was amiss after the former director was not seen for days, alerted a relation in the Surulere area of the state. The relation reportedly called a friend of the deceased living nearby, who visited the house.A police source said, “The friend accessed the house with his personal key and when he entered the compound, he perceived a foul smell.
“He also saw trays of onions and melon spread out to dry in the sun. They were already germinating, meaning they had been abandoned for a long time.The man decided to report back to the relative that he would not enter the flat because he could sense something was wrong.”
It was learnt that the friend, identified simply as doctor, reported the matter at the Ogombo Police Station. The relation and some other anxious family members in company with police officers, were said to have forced the door of the house open, only to see the corpse on the floor. When our correspondent visited the estate on Tuesday, he spoke with residents who said Jaiyesimi might have been murdered.
A resident, Kikelomo Banjoko, said, “A week to the incident, she came to buy sachet water from me and even spent more than one hour with me. She watched as I made pap and commended me for my hard work.The next day, which was a Wednesday, she introduced me to another woman in the neighbourhood, telling her that I was a hardworking woman.It was the Monday of the following week that I saw some people fumigating her house. Later, somebody told me she was dead. I was shocked.”
Another resident, who pleaded anonymity, said the former director was killed by somebody close to her. He added that the 63-year-old was “always security conscious”.
He said, “Once it’s late, no matter who you are, she will never open her door to you. She was very suspicious of people. She never had many friends. I am sure she couldn’t have slumped and died because she was very agile and healthy. The person who killed her must be a close friend or relative. To remove all traces, they took her phones, her generator and even her jeep was driven away.”