Killers of former FUTA VC: “We strangled him before hiding his body”

Yemi Bamitale and Daniel Ita, driver and security guard to the slain former Vice Chancellor of Federal University of Technology, Akure, FUTA, Prof. Albert Ilemobade, on Monday gave graphic details of how they killed their former employer in cold blood.

The suspects, now in police custody, were picked up at Iloti, in Ogun State, where they were about to sell off the vehicle stolen from the late professor.

While being paraded at the Ondo State Police Command, the suspects said the plan to kill the professor and take his car away for sale was hatched a day before the act was committed.

Bamitale, a driver, who was sacked by Prof. Ilemobade months earlier, said the incident was his second attempt to steal the car.

He said before he was sacked by his master, he had earlier made away with it, but he could not find a buyer because the vehicle had a tracker.

He said he later re- worked his plans and co- opted Daniel Ita, who provided the insider information needed to execute the plan.

He noted that it was Ita who made all the arrangements and provided his transport for him to return to Akure for the operation.

Giving further details on how they killed their victim, Bamitale said, “Daniel lured out Baba by telling him that there was an electrical spark in the house after I’ve stationed myself around the entry of the kitchen.

“Immediately Baba came out I grabbed him and strangled him to death. Daniel’s role was to put a piece of cloth in his mouth to stop him from shouting.

“After some few minutes, the old man gave up and we dragged him into the generator house and locked him inside the store that Sunday night. We left the house and locked the gate outside so that no one will suspect us.

“We went inside and took the car key and some other items like IPad, two phones, laptop, two bags and seven thousand Naira which we used to fuel the car.

“We left Akure and headed to Lagos. We left with those items so that the car will not be tracked again because Baba used these gadgets to activate the tracking.”

He further explained that although they encountered some policemen at the main entrance of the Ijapo Estate, Ita was duly recognized as Ilemobade’s security man and were let go.

He said they encountered another challenge when men of the Federal Road Safety Corps detained the vehicle for invalid vehicle particulars at Ijebu-Ode and had to sell the phones and IPad in order to pay for the release of the vehicle.

“We sold off the phones and laptops after being booked by the Road Safety officials. We sold the phones to retrieve the car from them before heading to Ijebu Ode with the hope of selling the car there,” Bamitale said.

Ita also corroborated Bamitale story and revealed that he had earlier visited a herbalist who warned against the killing of their boss but said Bamitale insisted that the man must be killed in order to get the car sold.

Ita, in his own account, said it was Bamitale’s idea that if Prof. Ilemobade was not killed, the stolen vehicle would be tracked.

He said drawing from Bamitale’s first experience of failure due to the tracking device in the car, killing the professor became the only option.

Police reported that luck ran out on the suspects when the man trying to buy the car called the police after he suspected that with the ridiculous price demanded by the suspects, the vehicle would have been stolen.

The Ondo State Police Commissioner, Isaac Eke, said Ita and Bamitale were arrested with the vehicle belonging to the deceased with Registration number GGE589 CF in Ogun state by security operatives in Ogun state.

“Detectives from Ondo state command later discovered that the night guard and the former driver strangled the aged Professor and dumped his body in an isolated store in the compound of the professor,” he said.

According Eke, the suspects have confessed to the crime, assuring that they their accomplices would be brought to account for the act.

He also said that relatives of the deceased had identified the corpse, which had since been deposited in the mortuary.

Adeseni Ilemobade, son of the late professor, said the family demands justice for the gruesome murder of their father.