Operatives of Nigeria Police, Bosso Division of Niger State Command, have arrested a 14-year-old girl, Joy Afekafez, a resident of Gbeganu, Minna, over the killing of a lecturer with the Federal University of Technology (FUT) Minna, Dr. Funilola Adefolalu.
The suspect, Joy, was the housemaid of the slain lecturer.
The deceased, according to Niger State police command spokesman DSP Wasiu Abidoun, in a press release made available to newsmen Tuesday, said the late lecturer was killed on Sunday at her residence in Gbaiko, Area of Minna.
DSP Abidoun disclosed that on October 29, 2023, at 100 hrs, some friends and church members of the deceased visited her residence in the Gbaiko area of Minna, as she was not seen at the church service and was not responding to phone calls put to her. On getting to the house, they met her lying in a pool of blood with marks of injury on her body.
The police spokesman said that it was at this point that police operatives in the Bosso division, who swung into action and visited the scene, saw two knives with blood stains suspected to have been used to stab her by unknown persons, while the body was taken to IBB Hospital, where she was confirmed dead.
DSP Abidoun further disclosed that the men and officers of the division swung into action and carried out a series of interviews with neighbours and friends of the family, while an investigation led to the arrest of the housemaid of the late lecturer on October 30, 2023, who resided at Gbeganu.
During the investigation, the suspect admitted working with the deceased for a period of three weeks as a housemaid before she was sacked for her misdeed.
According to her, she narrated her ordeal to her classmates after her sack, and one Walex and one other by name Smart, who along with her, went to the house of the late Dr. Mrs. Adefolalu on October 28, 2023, at about 1600 hrs, where she informed the victim that she came with two boys on the pretext of begging her for forgiveness.
Thereafter, the woman asked them to enter the house, from where they beat her and stabbed her with a knife, which Walex took along with him to the house, while Smart took a knife from the kitchen in the house and used it to stab her severally, as well as remove her phone and laptop and a battery of a vehicle parked, and went away with those items.
"The suspect will be transferred to SCID for discreet investigations while efforts are underway to apprehend the fleeing others", said the press release.