An Ebute Metta Chief Magistrate’s Court, Lagos yesterday remanded a 29-year-old man, Taiwo Akinola, in prison custody for allegedly attempting to kill his mother by smashing her head with a wooden stool, reportedly for money ritual purposes. Akinola, who pleaded not guilty, was arraigned on a one-count charge of attempted murder.
The police prosecutor, Kehinde Omisakin, told the court that the accused committed the offence on August 19 at 8a.m. at No. 2 Raji Ajanaku Street, Ayobo, a suburb of Lagos metropolis.
Omisakin said that Akinola, in an attempt to murder his 68-year-old mother, Iyabo Fawole, smashed an automatic voltage stabiliser and a wooden stool on her head.
The prosecutor said that the offence contravened Section 230(1) of the Criminal Law of Lagos State, 2015.
It was gathered that around 8.30am on Sunday, the Akinola battered his mother after he called her to meet him inside the house for a discussion.
The Chief Magistrate, Mrs. O. A. Komolafe, ordered that the accused be remanded at Ikoyi Prison pending advice from the State Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP).
The matter was thereafter adjourned till October 8 for mention.
On August 20, Akinola was arraigned at the state Police Command Headquarters, Ikeja, for the attempted murder of his mother.
The incident occurred inside the flat the suspect, Akinola, lives with his mother and her 14-year-old grandchild, Faruk.
The state Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), CSP Chike Oti, said the sleepy town of Ayobo was on the fateful day greeted with the gory sight of a helpless mother whose face and skull were badly battered by her son in his morbid attempt to upgrade his cyber fraud business (yahoo.com) to the bloody or ritual level (yahoo plus).
Oti added that in a carefully thought out plan to kill his mother, Akinola, said to be staunch member of the notorious Aiye confraternity, went to the victim’s provision store in front of their apartment and told her to meet him inside the house for an important discussion and at same time sent his nephew, Faruk, to go and buy him a white handkerchief and a stick of cigarette.
He said: “As soon as the victim entered the house, the suspect attacked her, smashing her head with a plank, pressing iron and a UPS charger to ensure she didn’t survive the ferocious attack. When Faruk returned from the errand, he didn’t see his grandmother in the shop so he went into the house only to see the poor woman lying in a pool of blood. Shocked by what he saw, the small boy raised the alarm which attracted neighbours to the scene.
“They called the Divisional Police Officer in charge of Ayobo Division who arrived the scene with his team and promptly arrested the suspect and secured the scene for further investigation by the police forensic experts attached to the Homicide Section of the State Criminal Investigations and Intelligence Department (SCIID), Panti, Yaba.”
The police spokesman explained that the victim was rushed to an undisclosed hospital for treatment and was found to be hanging onto life.
Oti said that the Police Commissioner, Imohimi Edgal, had paid the initial hospital cost which enabled the doctors to commence treatment.
He said: “During a brief interrogation, the suspect disclosed that he was asked to kill his mother in order to have more money. When his room was searched, items recovered in it, were two calabashes with one containing human skull and the other, a mixture of dark concoction. A plank perforated with nails and stained with blood, a pressing iron stained with blood, white handkerchief with which he wanted to scoop the victim’s blood and a bottle containing oil and labelled ‘Back To Sender’.”