Yoruba socio-cultural organisation, Afenifere, has expressed displeasure over what it described as the lackadaisical gesture of the police in the investigation of the murder of Mrs. Olufunke Olakunrin, daughter of its leader, Chief Reuben Fasoranti.
In a statement yesterday, Spokesman of the group, Mr. Yinka Odumakin, said that over two months that Mrs. Olakunrin was killed around Ore in Ondo State, nothing had been done to unravel her killers.
Meanwhile, the Ondo State Police Command Spokesman, Superintendent of Police (SP) Femi Joseph, said it was not true that the Force was not acting or being lackadaisical about the matter, saying: “We are working on it and would soon address the press on how far we have gone.”
But Afenifere said it was compelled to speak out over the lackadaisical attitude of the police over the gruesome assassination.
According to Afenifere, “Mr. Kehinde Fasoranti, the junior brother of the deceased, had stated openly a day after the incident that the police in Ore told him that his sister was killed by Fulani herdsmen when he went to collect her body the day she was killed but that he challenged the police to bring out the statement he wrote at their station. They have not contradicted him till date.”
The group expressed concern that the first sign it got that there was no attempt to launch any serious investigation into the murder was when the car in which Mrs. Olakunrin was killed was released to the family from Ore police station the day after the murder without any forensic investigation into the most prized evidence at the scene of the crime.
“It was when we engaged the police high command that they came to pick the car six days later. The car has now been returned to the family with no report on the examination report.
“Indeed, there was no attempt to carry out an autopsy on the corpse until we also demanded one from the police before the burial.
“One was carried out and only that report was given to the family members when they went to collect the car. Beyond this, the police have not made any briefing to the family on their investigations into this dastardly act.
“For instance, the driver of the car in which Mrs. Olakunrin was killed has not been asked a question by the police till date. Furthermore, few days after the killing, a member of staff of the deceased husband, Bankole Olatunbosun, was arrested as he was said to be in touch with Mr. Olakunrin’s driver, Femi Ajayi, who drove the Toyota Sienna bus in the deceased convoy.
“A week after the killing, Femi was brought into the family house in Akure by police officers in the anti-kidnap unit. The story from the crime scene was that Femi got down from the bus and followed the gunmen who killed Mrs. Olakunrin. He claimed he was kidnapped but there is no evidence of ransom requested from him or his family. He and Bankole Olatunbosun are now free men. Femi even sauntered into the Fasoranti’s family house three days ago,” the statement said.
“All the above put together suggest to us clearly that the police have not done any serious investigations into this murder. And it worries us that we are seeing all the signs of lethargy that usually attend high profile murders with powerful masterminds in our country,” the statement said.
Afenifere, therefore, urged those who respect human lives in Nigeria and across the world to join it in asking the police where are the killers of Mrs. Olakunrin.
The Guardian
