The Nigerian Army has confirmed the arrest of one Adeleye Ayomide, suspected of being responsible for the death of a 300 level student of the Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta, Ogun State.
The deceased, Idowu Christiana was abducted by suspected kidnappers along Ikorodu-Yaba road, Lagos State on Monday, August 19, 2024.
A family source who spoke to the press on condition of anonymity earlier disclosed that the kidnappers initially demanded a ransom of N3 million before they could release the student.
However, after some persuasion, the kidnappers accepted 350,000 naira that was deposited into their account but refused to release the kidnapped student.
Contacted on Thursday, the spokesman of the 81st Division of the Nigerian Army, Lt. Olabisi Ayeni confirmed Ayomide’s arrest.
Ayeni said the suspect was arrested by men of the 174 Battalion, saying, “Yes. I am aware of the problem. We arrested him and the 9th Brigade of the Nigerian Army handed him over to the Police Command of Lagos State today, so you can contact us for more information.”
Also on Thursday, the president of the FUNAAB Students Union, Ibrahim Adeyemi, confirmed the death of Kristiana to one of our correspondents in a telephone conversation, saying, “The union can confirm that she was allegedly killed by his captor. We’ll deal with this soon.”
Christiana’s death has continued to elicit reactions from concerned Nigerians, especially from users of the social platform X (formerly Twitter).
Investigation made on X revealed that some users had pointed the finger at Ayomide for the death of Christiana.
The hashtag #JusticeForChristiana is one of the top trends in Nigeria, with over 90,000 posts at the time of writing.
He also noted that Ayomide confessed to the father of the deceased and to military agents about the killing and burial of the victim, according to “detailed reports from reliable sources”.
His tweets, among other things, said: “With this information, the officers began to investigate the suspect who they observed to have a mutual relationship with Christiana Idowu, especially judging by the posts on Instagram, while the two commented on to each other’s pages. With all this information in hand, the agents began to monitor their cell phone activity and text messages.
“The mobile phone trace led them to their parents house somewhere in Ikorodu. The agents had confirmation of his presence in the building thanks to the active tracking of his mobile device. Immediately, brave members of Nigeria’s 174 billion dollar military rushed to the suspect to arrest him. After the arrest, incriminating evidence was found on the suspect, including the victim’s blue ITEL A56 with IMEI: 35230**.
