Ismaeel Uthman
IT is a major prayer among the Yorubas that “May we not have encounter with a person that is cursed or under spell”. The prayer is frequently said by old and young Yorubas to the extent that so many of them do not even know its deep meaning, until event unfolds.
The importance of such prayer resonated in Iwo, State of Osun, when a 23-year old barber, Abdulafeez Shorinmade, stabbed a tailoring apprentice, Rasaq Rofiyat, to death. The incident happened at Kajola area, Iwo, on Wednesday, October 12, 2022.
Shorinmade who was not in a bloody fight with anybody, stabbed Rofiyat in the neck and fled the scene.
The deceased, a 17-year-old was returning home from the shop where she was learning tailoring around 8:30pm when Shorinmade saw and attacked her with a pair of scissors.
Rofiyat was not the only victim of Shorinmade. After stabbing the deceased, the suspect fled and went ahead to stab 18-year-old Sawiyu Nasrup at Soba area of Iwo. Nasrup was stabbed on her chin. Shorinmade was arrested by police after attacking his second victim. He was paraded at the police headquarters, Osogbo on Tuesday.
In an interview with OSUN DEFENDER, the suspect confessed to committing the crime.
He said: “I am a barber. On the day of the incident, I was in shop when I heard a strange voice telling me to do evil. I left the shop and went to mosque to pray.
“After praying, I left for my shop and on my way, the strange spirit started directing me. The spirit first led me to where I picked some broken bottles. After that, I saw a scissors on the road and I also picked it. I saw a lady and I stabbed her with the scissors, I ran away after stabbing her.
“I got back to my shop and decide to go home but the spirit was still directing me. On my way to my house, I saw another lady in front of me, I followed her to a secluded place and I stabbed her.
“I had taken Indian hemp before carrying out the evil act. I do hear the strange voice whenever I took Indian hemp.”
However, the family of the deceased has called on the police to ensure that justice is done on the matter.
A member of the family, Kamoru Adeleke, who claimed to be an elder brother to the deceased, said the family is devastated on Rofiyat’s death.
He said: “I am Rofiyat’s elder brother. She was the last born of the family. She was learning tailoring and coming from her shop when the incident happened.
“On that Wednesday, she went to work and did not return home on time; she always arrived home early. But she was not home at about 8:30pm on that day. That kept the people worried.
“Her mother left the house to trace her to her shop but when she got out, she met some people who were talking about someone who was just killed around that area.
“She decided to go to the place and on getting there, the person turned out to be her daughter. People at the scene told her that it was one Afeez who stabbed her to death. I was called on phone and when I got to the scene, the police came with a bus and we took the dead body to the mortuary.
“At the mortuary, we were told the doctor was not around and that the emergency vehicle to go and bring him back was faulty. We had to take the corpse back to the police station that night.
“The following day, we went back to the mortuary but they rejected us again, telling us they don’t have the chemical to embalm the body.
“I asked them how much we were to pay to buy the chemical and they said N35,000. I told them that I didn’t have the money with me, and I promised to give them later, so they accepted the corpse.”
Speaking further, Adeleke said: “That same Thursday, we went back to the police station; the police in charge of the case asked us to pay N5,000 for the statement paper. I was wondering why we have to pay and we started dragging it and it got to a point where we got annoyed and left the station.
“We headed to the palace of Oluwo to inform the king about the development and it was at the palace they called the DPO. The DPO said he wasn’t aware the police demanded money from us. He asked us to come back to the station. At the station, the DPO apologised and attended to us.
“The case was transferred to State Criminal Investigation Department, Osogbo. When we got there, Afeez was interviewed and confessed to killing Rofiyat with scissors.
“The police asked why he killed her and he said it was a spirit that asked him to kill her.
“We want the government to ensure that justice is done on the case. We don’t want to be cheated.”
