Police Arrest Man for Hacking Farmer to Death

The Ogun State Police Command yesterday, arrested one Azeez Kelani for allegedly hacking a farmer, Ogha David Adima, to death.

While parading Kelani, a 33- year- old suspect at the police command, Abeokuta, Ogun State capital, the State commissioner of police, Ahmed Iliyasu, described Kelani as a serial thief who specialised in stealing farm produce in the community, adding that he had once been given public punishment for stealing tomatoes from a farm.

Kelani, according to Iliyasu, had on August 13, stormed a cassava farm belonging to Adima in Sojulu Village, via Ibogun in Ifo local government area of the state, to uproot cassava tubers.

The suspect who was caught in the act by late Adima from Benue State, however, attacked him with a machete to prevent him from raising the alarm.

The deceased was said to have sustained cuts around the neck region and died in the farm.

Kelani, who was reported to have fled the scene of the crime, was two days later apprehended by the police.

Meanwhile, the suspect denied ever hacking Adima to death, claiming that when the deceased met him on his farm, he attacked him with a machete and it was in the process of wresting the machete from his grip, that it cut Adima’s neck.

He confessed storming the farm to steal cassava crops, which according to him, he wanted to process to cassava flakes (gaari).

The suspect added that he actually begged Adima not to raise the alarm but he ignored his plea and started beating him with the machete.

Also, 39 suspected hoodlums residing under a tunnel at the Kara Market/Long Bridge axis of Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, were paraded by the command.

Paraded alongside with the hoodlums, was one Zubairu Umoru, a suspected supplier of hard drugs such as Tramadol, codeine and others, to the suspected hoodlums.

Other exhibits recovered from them included 159 bottles of codeine and cordrux, 25 packs of Vega 100, jack knives, cutlasses and charms.

While parading them, the CP said the hoodlums were responsible for sundry crimes around the Kara Market axis of Lagos-Ibadan expressway.