Ade Adebayo
After months of painstaking investigation, police in Ogun have unravelled the mystery behind the killing of the owner of popular J.B hotel in Owode-Yewa, Alh Jimoh Bello.
Bello was on May 29 found dead in the booth of his Toyota Camry car parked at Omo-Ilu Owotedo area, via Idiroko town.
Residents of the area, who noticed the car parked in their area, started suspecting foul play when an offensive odour was oozing out of the vehicle and they subsequently reported to the police at Idiroko Divisional Headquarters.
A statement on Thursday by the Ogun State Police Public Relations Officer, DSP Abimbola Oyeyemi, explained that when operatives got to the scene, the car door was forced open and the corpse of the deceased was discovered in its boot.
He said the case was subsequently transferred to the Homicide Section of the State Criminal Investigation and Intelligence Department for discreet investigation with a clear mandate to fish out Bello’s killers.
The statement added that the CSP Femi Olabode-led team embarked on intelligence and technical based investigation, which led them to the arrest of a 20-year-old herbalist, Misipode Dosu, who happened to be the last person seen with the deceased.
Upon interrogation, the suspect confessed that the deceased contracted him for a money making ritual for which he billed him the sum of N300,000, out of which the deceased had paid him #250,000.
The police spokesman explained that after some time, Bello started pressurising the herbalist that he had yet to see any positive outcome of the ritual.
But out of fear that his hotelier client might report him to the police for obtaining money from him under false pretence, the herbalist invited Bello for the final stage of the ritual at Idiroko.
On getting to Idiroko, the herbalist allegedly gave his client a concoction prepared with a poisonous substance.
Bello was said to have slumped and died immediately after eating the concoction.
Police said the suspect then put the deceased into the boot of his own car, drove it afar and parked it at the place where the corpse was later recovered.
Already, the Commissioner of Police, Edward A. Ajogun, has directed that the suspected herbalist be arraigned before a court of competent jurisdiction as soon as the investigation has been concluded.