James Sowole in Akure
An 83-year old man, Chief Dada Oyateru, the Ayalode of Akure Kingdom, was on Wednesday strangled to death at his residence located at Oke-Ijebu area of the Ondo State capital by dare-devil men.
The murder was narrated by his junior wife, Mrs Titilola Oyateru, who alleged that the man was killed by a group of three armed men who broke into their house around 1:00am.
According to her, the assailants entered the house through their late husband’s room after cutting the burglary proof upstairs and held them hostage for about four hours.
“They pointed guns at baba, demanding for the money which he brought home last night.
“He pleaded with them that he didn’t have any money at home and usually didn’t keep money at home too, but they refused to yield to his begging, threatening that they would kill us if we didn’t give them money,” she said.
Titilola disclosed that the deceased ought to have gone for a medical check-up at the Federal Medical Centre, Owo on Monday, but couldn’t because he had no money on him as a result of the recent nationwide strike that paralysed bank operations and other business transactions.
She said since her husband had no money at home, he begged them to go with his two cars with a promise that he would go to the bank the following day to withdraw money from his bank account.
“Baba begged them to tell him wherever they wanted him to drop the money for them, but they insisted that they would kill him if he didn’t give them money that night.”, she said.
The woman stated that the men tied the deceased with ropes and asked all of them to lie down with their faces to the ground.
“They pounced on the octogenarian and stifled life out of him by twisting his neck round.
“They ransacked the whole house and everyone, carting away valuables such as laptop, phones, jewelry and N35,000 cash which was given to me by a cooperative society.
“They escaped with the deceased’s red Toyota Camry car at exactly 4:30am”, she said.
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