By Evelyn Usman
For the family of Mrs Adedotun Oluwaseun, retirement was supposed to usher in a season of peace, rest and the joy of reaping the fruits of years of dedicated service. Instead, the death of their beloved mother has left them grieving and grappling with painful questions about the circumstances surrounding her final hours.
Read Also: Police arrest suspect over murder of Adedotun Oluwaseun, retired Ogun teacher
The retired confidential secretary with the Ogun State Universal Basic Education Board was allegedly strangled and repeatedly slashed with a machete in her residence at Bode Olude community, Abeokuta, Ogun State. A home that should have offered her security became the scene of a violent death, leaving her family searching for answers.
Nearly eight months after the incident, the Ogun State Police Command announced a breakthrough with the arrest of 49-year-old Saburi Lateef, a popular transporter in Abeokuta, also known as Alhaji Oki Osan.
In a disturbing twist, the suspect was reportedly among those who visited the deceased’s residence to commiserate with her family after her death, according to police sources.
Investigation
A source in the Homicide Section of the Ogun State Police Command, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said investigators initially had no clear lead to the perpetrator.
According to the source: “At the beginning, there was no link to the perpetrator of the act, but the Commissioner of Police, CP Olubode Ojajuni, directed that we should ensure that we do everything possible to unravel the killers.”
Police sources alleged that Lateef gained access to the deceased’s residence while she was away attending a retirement party organised for a friend around the Rounder area of Abeokuta.
“He was ransacking the whole place when the woman returned. In his bid to prevent being exposed, he strangled the woman.
“Not convinced that the woman was dead, he picked a cutlass and inflicted multiple cuts on her body. After that, he picked up her body and took it to the toilet, where he placed it on the closet to confirm if she was actually dead.
“He spent more than an hour carrying out the act without attracting the attention of other residents in the neighbourhood,” the source alleged.
‘I don’t know what came over me’ — Suspect
In his account, Lateef attributed his alleged action to frustration over the money he claimed Oluwaseun was keeping for him.
He said: “I don’t know what came over me that day. She was owing me N3.45 million, being the proceeds of my truck, which I sold as scrap. I have known Big Mummy (the deceased) for about 10 years now. I knew her since when her building was under construction, but it was when she moved in that we became close.
“It all started last year, when my truck broke down. I couldn’t get enough money to repair it. So, I parked it somewhere around my area in Bode Olude. After some time, some people came to buy it.
“Before then, I had told Big Mummy (the deceased) that I needed a loan to buy another truck and she promised to give me. So, when I sold my truck, I handed over the remaining N3.45 million to her, just to let her know that I actually need the loan that she wanted to give me.
“After some time, I asked her for the loan, which she had earlier promised me. She kept assuring me that she would give me at a later date, but she didn’t give me any loan. She kept extending the payment and I became very worried.
“When the loan that she promised me was not forthcoming, I requested her to pay me my money, which I kept with her, but she again refused to give me my money,” he stated.
Continuing his account, Lateef narrated how he allegedly gained entry into the deceased’s home and what happened when she returned.
He said: “On that day, I was determined to collect my money. Though I was drunk, that was not the first time, nor the only time, that I had taken alcohol. I was just frustrated and I needed my money.
“I gained access to her sitting room after I removed the burglary in one of the windows. When she came, we had a serious disagreement and I strangled her. After that, I picked a matchet in her apartment and inflicted cuts in different parts of her body,” he said.
‘We don’t know him’ — Bereaved family
His account, however, was disputed by members of the deceased’s family, who insisted that they neither knew him as a friend of their mother nor had any knowledge of the alleged financial transaction.
For the family, the arrest has raised fresh questions, particularly over Lateef’s claim that he had known the deceased for about a decade and had entrusted millions of naira to her.
The deceased’s eldest daughter, Mrs Taiwo Atanda, described her mother’s death as a mystery, insisting that the family had never known Lateef to be associated with her.
Recounting her last encounter with her mother, Atanda said: “On February 27, 2026, she came to my house when she was returning from her friend’s retirement party around Rounder area. She spent some hours with me and my children and, when it was getting dark, she went home.
“Usually, she used to wake us every day to greet us and talk to my children. The following day, which was a Saturday, we didn’t hear anything from her. I asked my children and they said that she had not called. I thought her phone battery had gone flat,” she recounted.
Worried by the unusual silence, Atanda said she contacted an elderly woman living close to her mother’s residence to find out whether she had seen her.
“I called one Alhaja, who lives close to my mother, but she told me that she had not seen her for about two days. The Alhaja was at the mosque then because it was during Ramadan period. She promised to check on Big Mummy as soon as she finished from the mosque,” she said.
According to Atanda, the woman later went to the deceased’s residence but found the surroundings dark, with no electricity. She reportedly proceeded to a nearby house where Oluwaseun usually visited, only to be told that she had not been seen for about three days.
Atanda said the woman and the occupant of the nearby house subsequently went to her mother’s residence, where they discovered her body on the toilet closet, bearing multiple machete wounds.
The discovery marked the beginning of an agonising search for answers for a family struggling to understand how their mother had died and what could have led to the killing.
The circumstances surrounding the suspect’s reported presence among the mourners added another layer to their grief.
Atanda said she was shocked to learn that Lateef had been among those who visited the house after her mother’s death.
“We don’t know this man. We have been celebrating Christmas with my mother and we have never seen him in her house. My children used to spend their holidays in her house and nobody has ever seen him with her. The first time that I saw him was the following day after my mother was killed. He was one of the mourners that day,” she said.
The daughter also denied that her mother had ever mentioned Lateef to the family or told them that she was keeping millions of naira for him.
Family demands justice
Atanda called on the Ogun State Government and the police to ensure that the circumstances surrounding her mother’s death were thoroughly investigated and that justice was served.
For the family, the arrest of a suspect is only one part of the process. They want investigators to establish what happened inside Oluwaseun’s residence, examine the claims of a financial dispute and determine the circumstances that led to the killing. They insist that their mother’s death must not be left unresolved.
Police assure of justice
The Police Public Relations Officer of the Ogun State Police Command, DSP Oluseyi Babaseyi, attributed the breakthrough to the persistence, professionalism and commitment of officers and men of the command.
He reiterated the command’s resolve to ensure that criminals had no hiding place in the state.
Babaseyi assured residents that anyone found to have committed a crime would be made to account for their actions and face the full weight of the law.
The post ‘Why I strangled, mutilated Adedotun Oluwaseun’ – Murder suspect who mourned with victim’s family appeared first on Vanguard News.