From Lateef Dada, Osogbo
Mother of Cairo, Egpty-based Bolu Bamidele, whose fiancee, Ifeoluwa Akanji, allegedly set ablaze in Koka, Obokun Local Government, Osun State, has lamented how the dream she had concerning her son misled her.
Mrs Abike Bamidele who believed her son was a flight officer and studying abroad said: “I had a dream that something bad happened.
Immediately I woke up, I went to my husband and we prayed. He said we should call our children and warn them and we did.
“They told me that one lady was pursuing Bolu’s life. I was asked to warn him not to go out on July 18 and 19. Immediately, I told Ife; ‘the dream I had affected your fiancée. They said a lady wanted to kill him. Don’t let him go out on July 18 and 19, 2022.’
Unfortunately, the incident happened on July 17.
“We went to their house on July 17 and returned home around 7pm.
Shortly after, I received a call from Ife shouting, ‘Mummy do you remember what I told you that Bolu took a lady to the hotel? Bolu has impregnated the lady.
“My husband told her to come with Bolu the following morning. After some minutes, she sent her sister on an errand, put on the generator and set the house on fire. It was her sister that called us to inform us.”
The incident caused confusion within the community and between the families of the couple as the would-be wife, fondly called Ife, also took poison days after.
Residents of Koka explained that they saw Ife on that day around 8pm walking barefooted in bra and tight without taking anything, not even her mobile phone, trekking towards the Osun State Univeristy.
She was said to have set her fiancee ablaze after she discovered through his WhatsApp chart that he already had a child while proposing their wedding.
Some her friends explained that the duo had been in a relationship since 2014. They had their introduction on October 4, 2021, after which they started living together as husband and wife.
Bolu who usually stayed in Cairo built a house for his fiancee and bought a Matrix Toyota car for her, even when they were to do their wedding.
However, sources said: “Bolu was intoxicated on July 17 and he was brought home by his friends. When he was sleeping, Ife took his mobile phone and checked through his WhatsApp.”
The chat obtained by our correspondent that occurred between 2:09 pm and 2:17 pm reads: “My period should come on the 16 of June. I was at Osogbo on the 3rd which is my ovulation period den. And we didn’t use protection.”
The respondent said: “Yes.” The message continues: “Boluwatife, lemme say Tife is yours but don’t tell anyone please. Are you sure?”
She said: “I saw the pix I took at the hotel den when I came to Osogbo and I saw the date.
“Yes okay, it’s all fine. Send me her pictures. And after the DNA and we have confirmed. Thanks so much for the maturity and we have to keep it the way it is. It must remain a secret.”
It was gathered that the chat was between Bolu and the lady who had a baby for him. However, after the pictures were sent at 2:17 pm, the chat ended.
Ife was said to have copied the number and chatted with the lady who allegedly had a baby for Bolu at 19:50 and Ife was said to have responded: “I already found out he is the owner of your child, and trust me, he won’t live to see daybreak not to talk of fathering your baby. And your sufferness just began. You this desperate old witch.”
The lady was said to have replied: “Excuse me??? What re u saying? Who is dis, please? Father of my child? U must be kidding. Did he tell u dat? Please, nobody should send me dis type of message again. Better still block him. Anyway, have a screenshot ur chat.”
Some minutes after the chat, it was the smoke of the fire that drew the attention of the passerby to the incident in the house.
One of the passersby who rescued Bolu, Gabriel Adejare, narrated: “We noticed that fire was coming from the house and we perceived that the fire was not a paper burning. We moved closer to the house and we discovered that fire was coming out of the room. We saw the younger sister of Teebam’s wife crying outside that her sister’s husband was inside the burning house.
“With some men around, we tried to make a rescue. We started to fetch water and sand to quench the fire but unfortunately, we couldn’t locate the exact room the man was in. It was after 40 minutes of quenching the fire that we noticed the man was still inside. We broke like four windows, and removed the burglary to save the man.
“We tried giving him first aid. Unfortunately, what we saw was much more than our power. We called ambulance or firefighter but no response before we took him in our car to the hospital.
“Ifeoluwa was only wearing a short tight and bra without shoes, phone, bag, wig or anything. Also, she didn’t respond to anybody asking her what the problem was. She just focused on where she was going.”
Adejare explained that the victim was rushed to the hospital where he was rejected and directed to University College Hospital (UCH), Ibadan, where he eventually died.
Spokesperson of Osun State Police Command, Yemisi Opalola, said Bamidele died on Tuesday, July 19, 2022, at UCH, saying efforts were in top gear to arrest the fleeing wife-to-be.
However, one of Ife’s friends said, shortly before the incident, Ife updated her status: “I’ve always been a calm girl and I’ve never done this in my life but Teebam has pushed me to the edge. At this point, y’all will weep over myself and him before daybreak. I’m promising y’all that!!!”
Three days after the death Bamidele, Ife was tracked to a town in Ondo State with a phone she used to call home. Lawyers and police persuaded her to come promising to intervene in her the matter.
While she was returning, she was said to have told the police that she did not get direct transport. They advised her to board Ilesa where they promised to pick her up. Ife also made a call to a relative who recorded the conversation.
In the one-minute-46-second call, after introducing herself, Ife said:
“You also think I’m the one that killed Bolu. You know that I love Bolu, that I can’t kill him and I cannot hurt him.”
After crying for some seconds, she continued the conversation: “You know it is because of Bolu that I started going to church. You can record my call because I just know that Bolu has died. I don’t know that Bolu eventually died. I think he will get well so that I can go and meet him to let him know that it is the devil that used me.
“If you are recording my call, record it. You also think I am the one that killed Bolu. I will soon get to Osogbo. I am coming to turn myself in because I am not the one that killed Bolu. I don’t know that Bolu has died.
“People are telling lies that Bolu used my womb for a money ritual.
How will Bolu use my womb for a money ritual? He indeed cheats on me.
But he did not do money rituals. Don’t bother to call me again because I’ve taken poison. Anytime from now, anything can happen.”
It was gathered that Ife submitted herself to the police and the lawyers who had gone to meet her at Ilesa, but she had taken the poison and efforts to save her proved abortive. The notes she purportedly handed over to the police were not made known to the public.
Ife’s parents’ house at Oke-Odo, Kobongbogboe, Ikirun Road, Osogbo, is deserted.
The one-room apartment was vandalised by angry youths who stormed the house on July 18 in search of Ife.
Calls made to Faith, Ife’s sister, were not successful. Her phone was switched off. Residents declined to comment in apparent fear of the attack launched by the angry youths.