How Lagos Tycoon Was Murdered By Togolese Cook

CYRIACUS IZUEKWE

The homicide section of the Nigerian Police are on the trail of a Togolese cook, simply known as Sunday, over his alleged Wednesday gruesome murder of Lagos business tycoon, Chief Opeyemi Bademosi in his Parkview Estate, Ikoyi, Lagos residence.

P.M.EXPRESS gathered that the suspect said to be on the run allegedly stabbed the businessman in multiple places with a knife and left him dead in pool of blood.

However, facts have emerged on how the cook, employed just three days before the dastard act, allegedly murdered his boss and escaped with huge sum of money and valuables kept in the house.

According to one of the neighbours; “I heard a scream from the wife, so I ran outside to their flat where I saw her outside with people holding her as she cried that her husband had been murdered.

“When we got inside, we saw the man in a pool of blood with the volume of music increased to the highest level. Already we had called the attention of the Estate Police before going in and they arrived just on time.

Also narrating how the incident happened, the distraught wife said she had left her husband very early that morning to do some transactions in the bank.

On her way back, she called her husband and couldn’t hear what he was saying as his words were barely cohesive, and was just muttering words before the call dropped.

She attempted to call him back but he wasn’t picking the phone. On getting home, the security man was still asleep and couldn’t even respond to her car horns till she got down from her car, to bang on the security’s window.

On entering their apartment, the wife said she met her husband already dead in a pool of blood and couldn’t find the cook who just resumed work on Sunday anywhere.

An officer with Nigeria Police Force Homicide Investigation Team, who pleaded anonymity, corroborated the wife’s claim: “That guy must be a devil as he stabbed the man in multiple places. I was the first to enter the apartment. In fact, the music was so loud that even if you were to be killing 20 people here, no one would hear them scream. I was the one that put off the sound upon entering.
The officer explained further; “After committing the act, the guy went to the toilet and pulled off the white uniform meant for cooks he was wearing because it was all stained with blood. He also left the knife he used inside the toilet there. If you see the knife, it’s a very strong, long and sharp knife that could only be authorised for military personnel.

“Afterward, he ransacked the whole apartment and carted away all valuables he could lay his hands on including an unaccountable sum of money, jewelries and the deceased phone.
“What baffles us more is that, no one seems to know anything about him because he was only employed few days ago and brought from Ondo State to resume just this last Sunday. And they only know him by his first name, which is Sunday.

“Again, we went through his things and found some old pictures of him putting on a camouflage belonging to Republic of Benin military. Also he was in a group picture with all of them wearing Benin Republic military uniform, which suggests that he could be an ex-service man in Benin Republic.

He said the matter has been transferred to the Homicide Department at SIID Panti, Yaba, Lagos for investigation.
The late Bademosi, a 1977 graduate of the University of Lagos, was the Lotin of Ondo Kingdom. As an astute businessman of repute, he was a co-founder and director of Stanmark Holdings Limited, a company involved in the importation of production materials for pharmaceutical and paint companies.

He was also a board member of other notable companies in Nigeria including Wema Bank Plc, Energy Work Limited, Lansear Transport Limited and Credit Switch Limited where he remains its CEO till his death.

Owing to his business acumen, he was instrumental to the joint venture between Stanmark Cocoa Processing Company Limited and Cadbury Nigeria Plc in the processing of cocoa seeds into semi-finished products and also involved in the mobilisation of human and financial capital for the project.

Until his murder, the deceased septuagenarian and father of four was also the Chairman of Ondo Development Committee (ODC).