An Islamic cleric, Mohammed Bello has been arrested for reportedly murdering and dismembering a lady identified as Hafsoh Lawal, whom he met via Facebook. Following his arrest in Ilorin on Saturday, Bello denied the murder of the Kwara State College of Education final-year student, claiming that she died of asthma.
According to the suspect’s interrogation footage, Bello claimed that he wasn’t responsible for Hafsoh’s death and he only dismembered the body as a way of concealing her death.
The gathered report disclosed that the private school teacher disappeared last Monday after leaving a naming ceremony to meet with a friend from Facebook.
After Hafsoh’s unexpected disappearance, her family reported her missing case to the local police station, which investigated her line’s calls and led them to Bello.
How the Kwara cleric denied killing the deceased
Bello alleged during interrogation that he was a victim of circumstance and had nothing to do with Hafsoh’s killing. He said Hafsoh, who was his girlfriend, asked him to buy her food because she was hungry and upon his return, he met her gasping for air.
According to the report, Bello expressed shock when he discovered the victim had just lost her breath at his residence. The 29-year-old suspect claimed that he dropped the rest of her body at a public dump site after dismembering her, which was his first time doing such.
Meanwhile, when contacted, the victim’s relatives denied the suspect’s assertion that the victim had asthma.
A friend of the deceased’s father, Lawyer Odedele, stated to newsmen that Hafsoh was among those who cooked at the naming ceremony she attended before heading to her strange online boyfriend’s house.
The lawyer stressed that if she had any lingering issues, she would have excused herself from the cooking.
Furthermore, Odedele explained that he is oblivious to her health history and if the deceased died from an asthma attack like the suspect claimed, however, nothing justifies the suspect dismembering her body.
Meanwhile, Kwara State command’s Public Relations Officer, Toun Ejire-Adeyemi, has assured the public that the investigation has commenced and the public would be provided with further information upon its conclusion.
As of this report, multiple attempts to contact the victim’s father, Alhaji Ibrahim Lawal have proven abortive.
