Bamigbola Gbolagunte, Akure
The pan-Yoruba socio-cultural organization, Afenifere, has berated the police over what it described as poor handling of investigations on the murder of Mrs Funke Olakunrin, the slain daughter of its leader, chief Rueben Fasoranti.
The Publicity Secretary of the group, Mr Yinka Odumakin who spoke with newsmen after a meeting held at the Akure home of Fasoranti observed that the inability of the police to have found the killers of Mrs Olakunrin showed that the matter was not well handled by them.
He said “it is now over two months that Mrs Olufunke Olakunnrin, the daughter of Afenifere leader ,Chief Reuben Fasoranti was murdered around Ore in Ondo State and we are compelled to speak out over the lackadaisical attitude of the police over the gruesome assassination.
“Mr Kehinde Fasoranti, the younger brother of the deceased had stated openly a day after the incident that the police in Ore told him his sister was killed by Fulani herdsmen when he went to collect her body the day she was killed and challenged the police to bring out the statement he wrote at their station.
“They have not contradicted him till date .
The first sign we got that there was no attempt to launch any serious investigation into the murder was when the car in which she was killed was released to the family from Ore police station the day after the murder without any forensic investigation into the most prized evidence at the scene of the crime.
“It was when we engaged the police high command that they came to pick the car six days later .The car has now been returned to the family with no report on the examination report.
“Indeed, there was no attempt to carry out any autopsy on the corpse until we also demanded one from the police before the burial .One was carried out and only the report was given to the family when they went to collect the car.
“Beyond this, the police have not made any briefing to the family on their investigations into this dastardly act.
“There are other bizarre developments that worry us on police investigations into this murder .
For instance ,the driver of the car in which Mrs Olakunrin was killed has not been asked a question by the police till date.
” All the above put together suggest to us clearly that the police have not done any serious investigations into this murder .And it worries us that we are seeing all the signs of lethargy that usually attend highprofile murders with powerful masterminds in our country.
“Afenifere therefore calls on all those who respect human lives in Nigeria and across the world to join us in asking the police where are the killers of Mrs Olakunrin?” he added.