From Molly Kilete, Abuja
A 63-year-old grandfather has been arrested for killing his apprentice. The suspect, Pa Taiwo Ojo, who can best be described as the devil incarnate, set the body of the deceased ablaze after killing him. But as he tried to bury him in a shallow grave, he was arrested.
Pa Ojo, who is a panel beater and sprayer resident at Bwari, where he also has his workshop, was said to have committed the act on December 23, two days to Christmas.
The deceased met his untimely death for not heeding to Pa Ojo’s several advice to quit smoking Indian hemp which he allegely smoked on a daily basis.
A native of Idimu Local Government Area of Kogi State, the old man who is now in custody of the FCT police command, was caught red handed while trying to bury the deceased, Philip Kura, who was an apprentice under him.
Looking very confused and full of regret, Pa Ojo, though he said he never meant to snuff life out of the young man, said that he acted in self defence, when he thought the deceased wanted to kill him.
According to him, trouble started that fateful day after he had advised the deceased to stop his bad habit of smoking Indian hemp in his shop only for him to start smoking when they had lots of work to do.
Angered by his disobedience to him, he said that he rushed to him, hit him on the hands. The Indian hemp he was smoking at the time fell off from his hand as he landed on the floor.
While he was still yelling at him to stop smoking in his workshop, he said the deceased brought out a black gun, pointed at him and threatened to kill him.
He said: “What happened was that I have one job man that is working under me and he is always smoking Indian hemp and I have been warning him to stop, but he refused.
“On several occasions he had been arrested by the police and I always go to the station to beg for his release. This has been going on for a very long time.
“So, on this particular day, he started smoking again in the hot afternoon and I got angry and told him that despite all the advice that I have given to him, he doesn’t want to respect me and stop. I approached him and asked him why he wante to destroy his life when we have a job to do because we had a lot of work on that day.
“With the anger in me, I hit him on the hand where he held the weed and he fell down. Immediately he fell down, he brought out a black gun and threatened to shoot me and I screamed and hit him on the hand and the gun fell off from his hand, he picked it and ran away. When he left, I started doing the work that we were supposed to be doing together at the workshop.
“Few minutes later, I saw him coming back to the shop and heading towards me; I was afraid and I thought he still had the gun in his hand not knowing he wasn’t carrying the gun, so I rushed and a picked a log of wood and hit him very hard on the face and he died on the spot.
“When I saw that he had died, I put his body in between banana trees around my shop because I used to farm in the bush around there and I used sand to cover his legs. I then went and got petrol and matches, poured it on the body and burnt it.
“Some people saw me while I was putting the body there and went to report to the police who came to arrest me. The incident happened on December 23.
“I am married with children and this is nothing but the handiwork of the devil because I have not slept since the day of the incident. My wife and children are in my village at Idumu, in Kogi State; they don’t know that I am in trouble.”
