Operatives of the Niger State police command have arrested Joy Afekafe, a 14-year-old female housemaid, in connection with the murder of Associate Professor Funmilola Adefolalu of the Federal University of Technology, (FUTMINNA), Minna, Niger State.
She was apprehended on Monday in the Gbeganu neighbourhood of Minna, the state capital, following preliminary police investigations.
According to a statement issued yesterday by the Police Public Relations Officer, PPRO, of the Niger State Police Command, Wasiu Abiodun, the suspect admitted to conspiring with two other male companions to carry out the murder.
The statement said: “During interrogation, the suspect confessed that she served as the deceased’s housemaid for about three weeks but was laid off due to her misdeeds in the house.
“She said after she was laid off, she met her classmates called Walex and Smart, narrated her ordeal to them, and conspired to attack the lecturer at her residence.
“They went to the residence on October 28, 2023, at 1600 a.m. with a motorcycle, and she surfaced at the gate while the lecturer opened the gate for her.
“Walex and Smart later entered, beat the deceased, hit her head with a stand, and stabbed her with a knife brought by Walex while Smart took another knife from the kitchen and stabbed her several times,” the statement added.
According to Abiodun, the suspect allegedly took the deceased’s phone and laptop, as well as the battery of the vehicle parked in the compound, before fleeing the scene.
He stated that the suspect would be taken to SCID for further investigation and prosecution, while efforts were made to apprehend the fleeing other suspects.
Last Sunday, Prof. Adefolalu, a lecturer at FUT Minna, was found slain at her home in the Gbaiko Area of Minna, the state capital.
Her colleagues who had not seen her in church had visited her residence to inquire as to why she had failed to come for church and had to force her door open. They met her remains in her pool of blood with two knives with blood stains by her side while the corpse was deposited at the IBB Specialist Hospital, Minna.
