The body of her three-year-old son, Akintunde Akinola, was found hanging on a piece of cloth at their house on Number 21, Lafenwa Street, in Ondo town, Ondo State on Tuesday this week.
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| Abayomi Daramola |
The cause of death was immediately put as suicide: Death by hanging. Case closed. Not so to the disconsolate mother, who suspects foul play.
The devil, indeed, is in the detail. A closer perusal of the suspected scene of death, according to the mother, shows that there may have been more to the death of the Primary One pupil.
In an interview with the Nigerian Compass on Saturday, the mother declared that the claim that the boy hanged himself is unacceptable and ordered that it should not be repeated to her hearing again.
Without identifying a particular person, the mother who has since been moved by her relations to Odotu Street, also in the town, told the Nigerian Compass on Saturday that her main demand from the police is for the killer, or killers, to be apprehended and tried.
“How can a three-year-old commit suicide? How could he fathom the process of hanging by such an intricate process as the knotting of a rope and making a noose out of it? How could such a short boy have tied the rope on the roof and then lowered it before tightening it into a noose? The killers should just own up,” she said.
The Homicide Section of the Ondo State Police Command in Akure, the state capital of is already probing the circumstances surrounding the mysterious death.
The late Akintunde Akinola, who was three years and nine months old, was a pupil of Saint Agnes Catholic Primary School in Ondo town, headquarters of the Ondo West Local Government Area of the state. He was alleged to have killed himself at about 7.30 a.m. The grieving mother described the report as “unbelievable.”
She told the Nigerian Compass on Saturday that the deceased and his younger sister, Mary, were hale and hearty while she left the house for Igba town on the outskirts of Ondo town that morning. She had gone to the town to buy some fruits which she would to sell at the Ondo campus of the Adeyemi College of Education (ACE).
Amid intermittent sobs, she said: “Nobody should tell me again that such a young boy hanged himself. What kind of suicide is that? Some people must have killed him for reasons best known to them, and to hide their crime they must have thought of the lie, forgetting that questions will be raised about how a three-year-old could hang himself.”
The mother continued: “Before I left the house at about 7.00 a.m., that day, I gave N10 to the boy and her sister, Mary, telling them to use the money to buy biscuits. At about 8.00 a.m., my eldest son came to meet me at Igba, telling me that Akin had developed convulsion and needed my attention at home.
“I was surprised when I got to our street and saw a large crowd in front of our house. When I got nearer, I was met by some neighbours who held me and told me that he hanged himself.”
The matter has been reported at the Enuowa Divisional Police Station in the town, but the mother wants a concerted effort at unraveling the matter. She said: “I want to use this opportunity to beg the government, particularly the law enforcement agents, not to allow the matter to be swept under the carpet by ensuring that the killers of my son are arrested and prosecuted so that he will did not die in vain.”
An octogenarian, Pa Fidelis Akindojutimi, who claimed to be the Secretary of Olafemiwa Street, described the incident as unfortunate. He said that no such incident had ever occurred in the area since he moved there.
Pa Akindojutimi, a retired school headmaster, said that as soon as the incident was discovered, the chairman of the street, Chief E.O Famuditimi, quickly mandated some executive members, including him, to report the matter to the police at Enuowa, a development which facilitated the arrest made by the police.
Another octogenarian, Mrs. Joko Akinola, whose house is next to that of the deceased, described the incident as a great surprise. She disclosed that the late Akin had earlier that day come to buy two packets of sachet milk from her. It was therefore a big surprise for her learn that the kid was found hanging by a rope.
Her words: “I was outside my house when one of the female tenants in the house came to tell me that Akin had killed himself by hanging. I initially found it difficult to believe and I retorted that the woman was joking. I took a cane and moved towards the house with the aim of beating the boy to discourage him from engaging in such a dangerous play.
“I was surprised when I discovered the news to be true. Akin had always been a good boy while his mother had maintained good relationship with her neighbours ever since she left our house after the death of her husband, who was my step son,” she stated.
Meanwhile, the house has been deserted by its occupants. When our correspondent visited the six-room brick bungalow, he met none of the occupants. Apart from a white dog which was seen in the room, where the victim was alleged to have hanged himself, several personal effects of the occupants were seen scattered everywhere while its back door was firmly locked.
Our correspondent gathered from a source at the Enuowa Divisional Police Station in Ondo town that no fewer than eight persons, including two little children, had been arrested in connection with the incident.
The source gave the names of those arrested to include Mr. Dede Nwankwo, Mrs. Selina Wabeze, Ebelechi Dede, Mrs. James Yemi, Mrs. Stella Dede and the principal suspect, Stanley Idinga.
They have been transferred to the Homicide section at the state police command headquarters in Akure the capital of Ondo state where they are undergoing interrogation.
Source: Compass Newspaper
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