A 300-level student of Philosophy at the Olabisi Onabanjo University (OOU), Ogun State, Ayomide Adeleye, has been arrested over the kidnap and alleged murder of Christiannah Idowu, a student at the Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta (FUNAAB).
The gruesome kidnap and murder of Christiannah have generated condemnation on social media as Nigerians are demanding justice and immediate prosecution of the alleged killer.
According to news reports, 23-year-old Ayomide had confessed to the crime.
Christiannah Idowu was declared missing on August 19, 2024, after her parents were contacted by her abductors via her own WhatsApp account. The first contact with her parents occurred around 8:49 p.m., followed by photos of Christiannah in captivity, sent using WhatsApp’s ‘view once’ feature.
The abductors demanded a ransom of N1,500,000. Christiannah’s parents were said to have managed to raise N350,000 immediately. The abductors then instructed that the money be deposited into a betting account through a bank deposit.
After receiving the money, on August 22, the abductors requested that the bank statement of the sender be forwarded to an email. The family, reportedly complied.
However, the abductors ceased communication immediately afterwards.
On August 22, an amount was said to have been transferred into Christiannah’s GTBank account and subsequently withdrawn into a Wema Bank account belonging to the primary suspect.
By August 29, Police sources hinted that intelligence operatives confirmed with the bank that the BVN linked to the masked betting account allegedly belonged to the suspect, who also operates the Wema Bank account number yet disclosed.
Further investigation as gathered, revealed that the suspect withdrew N100,000 from the betting account before agents could have the account blocked.
Operatives reportedly began investigating the suspect, who is said to have a mutual relationship with Christiannah, as evidenced by their Instagram interactions.
The same account number was said to have been used to launder money from Christiannah’s account which was previously posted on Twitter soliciting a giveaway.
With all this information, operatives reportedly tracked the suspect’s phone activities and messages, leading them to his parent’s house in the Ikorodu area of Lagos.
Active tracking further confirmed his presence at the location, with Nigerian Army personnel from the 174th Battalion effecting his arrest; retrived details of the money transferred and also confirmed ownership of the betting account —with reported correspondence between his email and the email used to communicate with Christiannah’s family.
After reviewing the evidence, the suspect was reportedly taken into custody for further investigation.
A few days later, the suspect reportedly confessed to both his father and soldiers that he had killed Christiannah and buried her at his home.
An unconfirmed report said that the suspect’s ex-girlfriend was killed in 2018, similarly, and in 2020, his biological sister met the same fate.
Reacting to the trend Human rights activist lawyer and alumni of OOU, Festus Ogun, said “I’m so embarrassed that this boy is a student of OOU. On behalf of the management and alumni of OOU, we disassociate ourselves from him. He doesn’t represent our values. #JusticeForChristianah”
When contacted, Lagos State Police Spokesman SP Benjamin Hundeyin confirmed that the Nigerian Army had handed over Ayomide, to the Police.
Hudenyin in a message he shared on his X handle wrote: “23-year-old Ayomide Adeleye has been handed over to #LagosPoliceNG by 9 Brigade #HQNigerianArmy. The handover took place today, September 5, 2024, at about 1400hrs. The investigation is ongoing”.
