- Investigation reveals face-off with lover over unpaid debt
- Estranged husband, children, others demand justice
Ex- banker turned caterer and former President/Chief Executive Officer Country Kitchen/Events, Debbie Olakunbi Monsurat Adene (nee Oyeneye) was gruesomely killed by unknown assassins in her room at Oda Road, Akure. TAIWO ABIODUN writes on the puzzle generated by the ugly incident.
MRS. Debbie Olakunbi Monsurat Adene (nee Oyeneye), who relocated from Lagos to Ondo State some years ago to start a new life, was found in a pool of blood last Sunday, five days after celebrating her 54th birthday. Her death came as a shock to everyone and turned Akure town as well as her Owo where she was born into mourning.
Sadly, no suspect had been arrested at the time of filing this report.
She had relocated from Lagos to Ondo State some years ago when she found things rough and started struggling to make a living. She abandoned her Secretarial career and what started as a small business metamorphosed into a full-fledged catering services company called Country Kitchen. The business made her to know many people including government officials, politicians and other prominent people in the society.
Her younger brother, Adebola Oyeneye, who resides in Owo, ssaid he received a phone call from one of his cousins in Akure who informed him that his sister had died.
Adebola said: “I received the call at 12 noon on that fateful Sunday that my sister was dead. So I quickly drove to Akure.
“On getting to the gate of the house, I met three police officers with an ambulance. I was wondering why the policemen were there.
“As I was ruminating over this, the police officers asked me to go in and see for myself. While going into the room I perceived a foul smell. I went in and saw her a pool of blood and I screamed.
“The body had already started smelling, which means she must have been killed about two days earlier..I could see her head with deep cuts, her hand almost chopped off while her leg had a deep cut and was dangling.
“I believed was attacked with a cutlass, which we found there splattered with blood just like the walls. All the clothes there were also splattered with blood I saw deep cuts on her chest and her intestines were out!
“It was a gory scene. I cried.
“The assailants did not remove anything from the room as all her things were intact. But her two android phones were taken away by the assailants, leaving one ordinary phone beside the blood-stained cutlass.
“There was a plate of rice on her table. I believe this was what she was eating when the assailants met her.
“The police took away the blood-stained cutlass they saw in the room along with the small phone.”
Adebola continued: “We carried the body into the waiting ambulance to the General Hospital, Akure to deposit it in the mortuary. But when we found that the General hospital’s mortuary bill was too high, we took the corpse to GIDEX Hospital’s mortuary opposite the General Hospital.
My two younger relatives and I later went to the police station on Oda Road to report the incident.
“I left for Owo and got home at 11: 45 pm on that Sunday.”
Adebola added that until her death, her late sister was living alone in her two-bedroom apartment on Oda Road with other three male tenants in three other flats joined together.
What baffled many is that the compound has four flats with a brick fence with broken bottles set on it and the big iron gate at the entrance of the compound was not tampered with.
Adebola said “The only tenant who did not travel told me that the two other tenants traveled while he drove out. He said that when he came back, he found a key dangling outside on the door to my sister’s room, and he thought that my sister was around because of the key that was dangling outside the door.
“So nobody knew what happened until the laundry man who used to wash my sister’s clothes came on Sunday. The tenant asked the laundry man to go in as they sighted the key, but when the man went in, he ran back and screamed that my sister was dead.”.
Searching for culprit
On who might be responsible for it, Adebola said he did not suspect anybody because it is the duty of the police to find the killers.
He said “I didn’t suspect anybody. I didn’t live with her because I live in Owo. So I could not have suspected anybody.
Asked whether she had any quarrel with anybody or had any relationship with any man, Adebola said: “I know she was going out with a man who holds a traditional title in Akure. That is all.”
Investigation revealed that the deceased caterer was going out with a popular traditional title holder in Akure and she used to lend the man money too. Later, there was a misunderstanding between them as the man did not want to pay back the money he borrowed from her.
Another source said the late ex-banker accused the traditional title holder of not treating her well besides the maltreatment he allegedly meted out to her.
Yet another source said the late Adene could have been a victim of political killings as she is a member of a popular political party while another said the competition among the caterers could possibly cause it.
The insinuations were however debunked because she did not hold any post in the said political party while the catering business is wide enough for each practitioner to have their own clients.
Yet another source said the searchlight should be beamed on the staff of Adene’s company while another said her death could have come from those she must have offended and who decided to revenge or the wives of some men she dated.
Estranged husband speaks
Informed about her death, the deceased caterer’s ex-husband, Mr. Dele Adene, who is resident in Lagos, said:”I was shocked to the marrow when I heard about her sudden death. It was one of her daughters who called to tell me that her mother was dead. We all went to Akure to see her lifeless body at the morgue
“When I saw the body at the mortuary, I was speechless. They used a machete on her head, hands and chest. This is bad. God will surely expose the killers.”
Mr. Adene, who said he had been separated from the deceased for more than 18 years for reasons he would not like to talk about or made public, added: “No matter the condition and situation, she was still the mother of my beautiful children, and I cannot be washing my dirty linen in the public.
“It is true that we are no longer together for we had divorced for over 18 years because of one reason or the other. But those who killed her will not find peace.”
He said has had reported to the Criminal Investigation Department of the Nigeria Police Force in Akure for necessary action.
“I am pleading with the Inspector General of Police to please look into the matter and bring to book the people behind this dastardly act, no matter how wealthy or influential.
“I want justice.”
He added: “Tthe police are still investigating the case. I know it is a high profile murder case, but it should not be swept under the carpet.
“When I saw the blood- stained cutlass, I cried. Nothing was removed from the house. Her gold and other jewellery were intact and this showed that it is pure assassination.”
Mr Adene said the policemen who went with him to the house said there was no evidence of violence in the living room or sleeping room as both places were not roughened.
“Imagine the brick fence walls that was high with broken bottles placed on them. There is no way anybody could jump from that place down without being badly hurt.
“I believe the assailants sneaked in unnoticed or an insider did the job.
“The bed sheet and other clothes were soaked in blood. They were taken away with the cutlass stained with blood by the police for forensic laboratory tests.”
Asked whether he suspected anyone could be behind the incident. Adene said:”I don’t live in Akure. It’s the people who knew her and going out with her that should be questioned.
“If she had any quarrel with any man, the man should be interrogated.
“How will she leave the children like this? The world is wicked.”
He said the police should leave no stone unturned in their investigation, “and I believe they will unravel the cause of this killing.
“Now they are still interrogating some of his staff and her neighbours. They should please look beyond this.”
Asked when last they saw, Adene said it was 10 years ago.
“Let’s put all those behind and find the killers of this woman. What could she have done to warrant her killing? Why?
The deceased’s two daughters, who did not want their names published, pleaded: “We are pleading with the state and federal government to bring the perpetrators to book. That is how we would be relieved. Justice must be done “.
One death too many
Of particular concern for Adebola is their aged mother who is more than 90 years old..He said: “Our mother is old and it is painful that she is witnessing this ugly incident at her old age.
“We lost our brother, Abayomi, a school teacher a few years ago, and we are still battling with that. This is one death too many.
“My mother is living with me and I am managing the situation and don’t want her to know all these.
“For God’s sake what offence could she have committed to warrant being butchered like a cow? You need to see how her body was butchered. Her intestines came out from her bowel.”
On the two vehicles owned by the late caterer, Adebola debunked the rumour that she got them from men.
He said: “I know very much about the two vehicles. It was my brother, Wale, who lives in the United States of America that sent them to her for her catering business. This I know very well.
“She did not take any car or vehicle from any man. She made her money from catering business because she had contacts, especially with politicians and who is who in Ondo State, from whom she took catering contracts.
“She has the latest kitchen equipments and expensive decoration materials she used for ceremonies. She was a very hardworking woman.”.
The late Monsurat Debbie Olakunbi Adene (Nee Oyeneye) worked at Swift Courier Services in Lagos and later in Omega Bank. She worked for a few years at ICAN head office, Lagos before she relocated to Ondo State and started her Kitchen Country Services where she boomed and became known in Akure, the state capital.
