A Lagos-based mother, Balikis Olanrewaju, has accused a young man of killing her 25-year-old daughter, Adijat Pereira, for ritual purposes.
In an interview with the Punch, Olanrewaju alleged that the youngman, Omotolani Taiwo, popularly known as Daine, who was a former lover of her daughter, lured her to his apartment where he smashed her forehead with an axe and ended her life.
While narrating how the incident started, the bereaved mother said she was sleeping on Thursday, Friday 27th when her daughter’s boss called her to report that she was not at work.
Olanrewaju said she is a businesswoman who was always on the move.
“It was around 10 am. I tried calling my neighbours, and they confirmed that they had seen Adijat the day before, and that they saw her when she went to bed. I asked them to help me check on her. When they arrived at the house, the doors to the sitting room and my bedroom were left open. I also asked them to check the backyard, but they said she wasn’t at home and might have gone to work.
“I kept calling her number, but she didn’t respond. I thought maybe she was busy. So, I lay down. Then her boss called again, but I didn’t answer this time. I called my daughter’s sister to tell her that they said she (her sister) wasn’t at work, and she reassured me, saying they had a long conversation on Wednesday and that before she went to bed, she chatted with her.”
The bereaved mother recalled that her daughter’s former boyfriend, Omotolani Taiwo, popularly known as Daine, then called her.
She recalled that Daine said he had called Adijat, but she did not answer, and he would try calling her again.
“After a while, he called me back and said she didn’t answer her call. He then mentioned that he knew her office number and would try calling it. He said he called again, but there was still no answer. At this point, I was worried and didn’t know who else to contact. So, I called my neighbour again, but they confirmed she wasn’t at home.
Her sister then messaged me, saying that Adijat was at Mubarak’s place. I asked, ‘Who is Mubarak?’ and they replied that they didn’t know him but told me to relax. There was an elderly woman beside me, also worried, and it was around noon by then. Her father had been calling me as well. All this while, we had been sending messages to Adijat, unaware that she had already been killed. The young man, Daine, was using her phone, but we didn’t know this at that time.
I don’t usually send voice notes, but I sent a message saying, ‘Hello, Adijat. I’ve been calling you, but you didn’t answer. Your sister said you’re at Mubarak’s place, but who is Mubarak? I know you’re dating Daine, and you stopped seeing him because I told you not to. Who is this Mubarak?’
She didn’t reply. Then I saw a message from her that read, ‘Hello ma, my phone battery is at one per cent; please, talk to me on WhatsApp.’ I messaged her there, asking, ‘Hi Adijat, where are you?’ But again, she didn’t respond.”
Olanrewaju said while she was chatting with ‘Adijat’ on WhatsApp, the young man called her to inquire if she had established contact with her and she responded in the negative.
“Around 8:30 to 9:00 pm, he called again with a private number and told me that Adijat had come to him in the middle of the night. He said they had a misunderstanding and argued, and that she hadn’t woken up for the past four hours, and that maybe she had fainted. He promised to give me the address.
I immediately called everyone and handed the phone to a girl who was with me. He told me to use Uber, but I said no, I wouldn’t take Uber. He asked where I was and directed us to Iyana Ekoro, Abule-Egba. After we arrived there, I sat down, and then he told me that we had reached the right place. So, I entered the compound.”
She said that while she was standing at the door, she saw someone in white, and then the door opened.
She said that as she approached, the air pushed her back, and she fainted.
“I couldn’t enter the house again. When my family arrived, they managed to get inside, and that was when we found Adijat on the bed, covered with a towel.
There was blood in a bowl, and we saw a calabash, a human heart, and other items. Before running away, the young man had poured charm outside the house. I didn’t understand all of this. When I looked at Adijat’s eye, I saw that he had blinded her. He had hit her head with an axe and used the axe to drain her blood into the bowl.”
She narrated that her family called in the police, and they found different traditional items such as drugs and a cloth with a blood-filled bowl.
“When we later visited the mortuary, we discovered that he had broken her hand, and it was bandaged. When I looked at the picture, we realised the extent of the injuries. Her forehead had been hit, likely with an axe or something similar, and there was blood in the house along with various calabashes.
The police said she had been killed since Wednesday midnight, and from Thursday midnight to Friday. The young man had turned on the air conditioner and dressed her up, crossing her legs. When we arrived at the police station, no one was allowed to see her, not even family members.
“Since I’m a single mother and no longer with Adijat’s father, I raised both children on my own. I had made sure they visited their father’s house so it wouldn’t seem as if I prevented them from seeing him. When we went to the station that morning, the DPO and others were present.
“Daine called later and promised to surrender himself. I asked him if he had been using Adijat’s phone to chat. He said he would bring the phone, but when they called him, he said he hadn’t seen it (the phone). If you go to Yaba mortuary, you’ll see what he did to my daughter.
“Since they had not seen all of this, we were the ones who discovered it. So, they went to visit the father and arrested a family member. We were invited by the police. The Divisional Police Officer said he had something to tell me, but I told him it wasn’t necessary unless we involved both families. My daughter’s father’s family was there, as well as mine, but the family of the man who killed my daughter wasn’t there.”
Adijat was born on October 26, 2000. That means she would have been 25 in October this year. She studied Mass Communication. She worked with a microfinance organisation.
Olanrewaju said she took the case to SCID, Panti, Lagos, after it appeared that the police at Meiran wanted to suppress the case.
She called on well-meaning Nigerians to help her get justice for her daughter.
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