Police parade SS2 female student over murder of FUT Minna lecturer, say suspect’s schoolmates involved

Police Command in Niger State has paraded an SS2 student of the Day Secondary School, Gidan Kuka as one of the killers of the female senior lecturer of the Federal University of Technology (FUT), Minna who was murdered in her room outside of the institution’s campus, last Saturday.

The senior lecturer was also said to be a pastor at the Voice of Mercy Ministry, in Minna.

Parading the suspects, said to a former househelp of the deceased lecturer, Tuesday, the police said two other persons implicated in the gruesome murder are now at large.

Identifying the paraded suspect as 14-year-old Joy Afekafe, the police said the girl temporarily lived with the lecturer as a househelp before killing her with the aid of her male accomplices who she named as schoolmates from the same school.

It would be recalled that a Senior Lecturer at the Department of Biochemistry, Federal University of Technology (FUT), Minna, in Niger State, Dr. Mrs Adefolalu Funmilola, was found dead in her room outside of the institution’s campus, Sunday.

She was presumably killed the day before.

The female lecturer was found dead with her throat slit in a suspected attack by yet-to-identified persons.

14yr-old suspect, Joy Afekafe paraded by the police in Niger State

Chairman of Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), Federal University of Technology, Minna Chapter, Dr Bolarin Gbolahan, who confirmed the incident, Monday, described the incident as shocking, as he decried the situation whereby ‘academics are now becoming endangered species.’

“It is strange that Academics are now becoming endangered species. Our members are being kidnapped almost every week at Keffi now. We cannot sleep in peace again in our homes in Minna,” said Gbolahan.

The deceased was said to be already an Associate Professor and was expected to be promoted to Professor before the end of this year, when the Council of the university dissolved and must have been reconstituted.

According to eyewitness account, the late lecturer’s body was discovered, Sunday, when members of her church visited her home when she was not seen in the service earlier that day.

“When members of her Church went to her residence, they sensed she could be in and have to force her door open, only to see her in her pool of blood.

“She was found with her throat slit and knives found beside her,” the eyewitness narrated.

The Police Command in Niger State has yet to confirm the incident, as the church is said to begun making arrangements to convey the late lecturere’s corpse back home for burial.

Meanwhile, Afekafe who was paraded as one of the suspects responsible for the murder of Dr Adefolalu, at the Bosso Police Station in Minna, Niger state on Tuesday, confessed to the crime.

Afekafe said she had previously lived with the lecturers for about two weeks on the pretext that she would take over the sponsorship of her education. But the SS 2 Student of Day Secondary School, Gidan Kuka, said the lecturer decided to send her away after two weeks because she could not tolerate her bad attitude.

She said she and the two other suspects who were also students in her school had gone to Dr. Adefolalu’s residence to confront and beat her up for sending her away.

Afekafe said they decided to stab the lecturer to death over fears that she would recognise and report them to the authorities after beating her.

To actualise their plan, he said her accomplices, Smart and Walex first hit the deceased with a stool before they began to stab her repeatedly with knives and eventually left her in a pool of her own blood.

“It was Walex who said that she would recognize us if we left her alive, so they started stabbing her with the knife we brought, I then struggled with the knife with them which made Smart enter her kitchen and take a knife there and they continued stabbing her.

“They stabbed her in her stomach, her hands, her legs and she was just shouting Jesus, Jesus. After all that, they took her phone and laptop and her car battery before we left the house in the motorcycle we came in,” Afekafe narrated.

Spokesperson for Niger Police Command, Abiodun Wasiu, said efforts are ongoing to arrest Afekafe’s accomplices, Walex and Smart, just as he disclosed that investigation had been transferred to the State Criminal Investigation Department (SCID) for further investigation and prosecution.

Meanwhile, the church of the slain senior lecturer has expressed shock over what it described as ‘tragic and senseless murder of our beloved Pastor, Dr Mrs Fumilola Adefolalu,’ adding that the ‘heinous act has left a profound impact on our congregation, and we are united in our resolve to seek justice for our dear pastor.’

The Church in a statement by its Head of Media and Communications, Pastor Bolaji Olanipekun, Monday, called upon ‘the security operatives and every law enforcement agency involved in this case to leave no stone unturned in their pursuit of justice.’

““As a church, we stand on the path for truth and justice and declare that everyone involved in the murder of our Pastor faces the full wrath of the law. We are seeking justice for her untimely and unjust demise. We trust that the law will ensure that those responsible for this horrific crime are held accountable to the fullest extent of the law,” the statement by the church read.