Operatives of the Amotekun Security Corps in Ogun state have arrested a 45 year old father and herbalist, Gbenga Ogunfadeke, for allegedly torturing and starving two of his three children to death in Ijebu-Ode area of the state.
The father of three was arrested on Tuesday in Ibiade, Waterside Local Government Area of Ogun State.
A statement issued and signed by the Ogun Amotekun Commandant, CP David Akinremi rtd, stated that the suspect had been maltreating his three children, aged 16, 17 and 18, since his marriage to their mother, Busola Otusegun, crashed.
The state commandant said Ogunfadeke accused his children, a boy and a girl, of stealing and chained them in a confined space without food and water for over three months until they died.
The Amotekun commandant said Ogunfadeke was arrested following a complaint by the children’s mother, Busola Otusegun.
Busola made it known, that she and Ogunfadeke parted ways years back after having the three kids.
She explained that Ogunfadeke insisted he must have the custody of the kids whose ages are 18,17 and 16.
Upon the agreement, she left the kids with their father and relocated to Warri, Delta State where she remarried and started life afresh but was always in constant touch with her ex-husband in order to inquire about the welfare of the children.
”I couldn’t have direct contact with my children, but I always asked their father about their welfare and he was always assuring me they were fine. Only to discover my 18 year old boy and his sister who was 17 had died in Ijebu-Ode between April and June 2022.”
Narrating how she got wind of the death of her older children, the woman said it was the surviving child who came across his aunty at Ibiade, (where Ogunfadeke relocated to after the death of the two kids ), on 30th March 2023, who told the aunty about how their father used to chain and lock them up in a solitary confinement without food and water.
The boy further explained that their father put the three of them in the agonizing state for three months, which eventually led to the death of the older siblings and he, miraculously survived the ordeal.
This led to the suspect being arrested and interrogated.
Ogunfadeke, however, denied starving his children to death but admitted putting them in confinement, citing stealing as the reason the children were punished.
The statement reads ”According to him, his action was based on the children’s involvement in stealing hence the need to ensure they are prevented from such criminal action. He further claim that the two (2) deceased were taken to hospital for treatment at different times, they fell ill but unfortunately died in the process.
“What is however curious about his defence is that the hospital where he claimed the two children died in Ijebu Ode could neither be located nor where he allegedly buried them behind a rented apartment he lived in Ijebu-Ode before relocating to his present abode in Ibiade with the third child for possible exhumation be traced.
“The fact that he refused to make the incidents known to any member of the family also gives course for concern, moreso when the suspect is a herbalist, thus further fueling the suspicion of having killed the deceased for possible rituals.
“Consequently, the case is being transferred to the State Criminal Investigation Department for further investigation with a view to establishing further facts that will facilitates his prosecution.”
