daughter to death.
The accused was alleged to have beaten his four-year-old daughter, Testimony to death last Wednesday on the allegation that the little girl possessed evil spirit.
A police source said that several efforts made by men of the state police command to arrest the suspect was stalled by some residents of the town.
The suspect who is said to be at large was alleged to have tortured the little girl to a state of unconsciousness and was consequently rushed to the Ondo State University Teaching Hospital
Akure by her mother.
The girl (Testimony) was confirmed dead at the hospital.
It was learnt that the mother of the deceased fled the hospital premises with the corpse of the girl to an unknown destination and since then the police have been trailing Babalola and his wife.
Mrs Babalola was said to have disappeared from the hospital for fear of being arrested by the police.
However, sources said the police traced the suspects to Ikare town where they made attempts to arrest them but the residents of the town allegedly prevented them from arresting the couple.
A source said” It was surprising that the residents of the community would not allow the police to carry out their duty.
“The police actually came to the community, they saw and made efforts to arrest the suspects but the residents of the town trooped out to stop the police from arresting them.
“lt allmost led to a clash between the police and the residents of the area. It took the intervention of a traditional ruler in the community before the matter could be resolved.
“The traditional ruler promised to take the suspects to the police station next week,” the source added.
When contacted, the state Commissioner of Police, Mr. Undie Adie neither confirmed nor denied the development but expressed assurance that the suspects would be arrested.
He said “If you want to make arrest, you have to be professional, otherwise you will cause another crisis, sometimes you even miss your target. I assure you, in the next few days we will arrest them.”