Sixty-five-year-old retired Chief Magistrate, Funmilayo
Timeyin, would have hoped to live out her days off the bench in peace and
relaxation. With no young child around the house, as all her children are grown
up, she employed 21-year-old David Idah, a Benue State indigene, as
housekeeper.
But from the moment she signed on the young man, a judgement
seemed to have been passed on the magistrate’s fate.
With three cutlass blows to the neck around 6pm on Friday,
March 28, 2014, the young man ended the life of the retired chief magistrate at
a gated bungalow at Laderin Estate, Abeokuta, Ogun State.
Our correspondent paid a visit to the Department of Criminal
Investigation, where Idah was being held on Tuesday, and the young man gave
surreal details of how he came to work as Timeyin’s house help and ended up
killing her.
Idah, who said he dropped out of school in Primary Six when
he was living with a relation in Osogbo, Osun State, had bloodshot eyes when he
was brought out of the cell by the investigating police officer attached to the
case.
But when he began to speak, he neither minced words nor
stuttered as he narrated what led him to kill the magistrate.
Idah said, “I came to Abeokuta from Lagos this January. I
was working in a Calabar Kitchen in Ojodu-Berger (Lagos) before I lost the job.
I was both a cook and a waiter there.
“I was living with my sister in Lagos but we quarrelled. She
was the one who got the for me job and I was being paid N12,000. Initially, I
was spending N2,000 monthly out of the money and saving N10,000 with her.
“But she later complained that I was keeping late nights,
sleeping out and spending all my money without saving any with her again. I
worked in the restaurant for seven months but when I became fed up with my
sister’s complaints, I called a friend who works in Abeokuta here and I told
him I did not like the job I was doing in Lagos and he advised me to come to
Abeokuta.”
When Idah got to Abeokuta in January, he said it did not
take long before he was connected with someone who arranges domestic helps for
those who need them and he was told he would work in Timeyin’s house.
He said the retired chief magistrate took him in and put him
on a N10,000 salary per month.
“I initially liked the job but later, the woman, who was
nice to me before, changed. I started getting tired of the job,” Idah
said.
Asked what he did that made his boss to change her attitude
towards him, he said, “She accused me of behaving badly. And I did nothing
wrong. She would call the person who connected me to her and complain all the
time.”
But when our correspondent asked Idah if he was merely
‘accused’ of behaving badly or actually doing something wrong like stealing
from Timeyin, Idah paused for a while.
Then after a long pause, he said “Well, I stole some things
because she was maltreating me. I stole two mobile phones, DVD player and
speakers, perfume, wrist watches, three trousers and four shirts belonging to
her son.
“I planned to sell them. She did not pay me my salary. I
wanted to sell those things and use the money to leave. But she discovered that
I stole them and handed me over to the police.”
Saturday PUNCH learnt that soon after, the police
informed Timeyin that the young man would be charged to court. She pleaded with
the police to release Idah but disengaged him from her employ.
However, a few days after Idah was released from custody, he
decided to pay a last visit to his former boss’ house.
He told Saturday PUNCH, “After I was released by the
police, I realised I still had some of my things at mama’s(deceased’s)
house. I went to the house in the evening and placed a ladder on the fence.
“I jumped into the compound and took the cutlass I used in the
house to cut grass. I laid an ambush in and waited till she came out of the
house. When she came out, I hit her on the neck with the cutlass, I hit her
again and again because I was angry.
“I only hit her three times. She was screaming and that
attracted the neighbours. She was shouting ‘help, help!’, so I dropped the
cutlass and jumped over the fence. I hid in the bush behind the house.
“Some neighbours who rushed inside and saw her quickly told
other neighbours and the vigilante in the area to surround the bush. They were
about 25 people. They sighted me in the bush where I hid and got hold of me
while I was trying to escape.”
After Idah was overpowered by the vigilante in the area, he
was promptly secured with a rope while they notified the police.
“I did not even think of the consequences while I was
hitting her, I was just angry with the woman,” Idah said.
Efforts to save Timeyin were futile. She died before she
could get to the hospital.
But the Police Public Relations Officer of the state
command, Mr. Muyiwa Adejobi, told Saturday PUNCH that the young man
was being economical with the truth when he said he was being maltreated by the
retired magistrate and that she did not pay him what was due to him.
He said, “When the woman went to plead with the police to
release him, she was even preaching to him, telling him that he should change
his ways so that he could be successful in life.
“The woman herself wrote a letter of withdrawal to the
police. She said she did not want him tried. She was just a peaceful woman who
did not want to compound the suspect’s woes. But she disengaged him there and
then.”
Adejobi said Idah, whose parents currently live in Benue
State, would be charged to court soon.
“Even though it is a clear case, the police would perfect
the investigation so that his prosecution would run without hitches. We have
enough evidence to charge him with murder,” he said.
However, our correspondent also paid a visit to the Laderin
Estate home of the deceased; a quiet neighbourhood lined by bungalows.
A man who opened the gate identified himself as Olumide, the
deceased’s son but he promptly declined speaking on anything relating to the
case or the life of his mother.
Olumide was said to have been one of the first people to get
to the scene of the crime. He was said to have gone out but came back shortly
after his mother was given the killer blows.
However, Idah was charged to court on Friday on one count of
murder, three days after Saturday PUNCH spoke with him. He was remanded in
prison by an Abeokuta Magistrate’s Court while his case was referred to the
Directorate of Public Prosecution for advice.
Courtesy of: Punch
Sory oh he is a dead man living cus his surname now is sory
ReplyDeleteHe's indeed a heartless fellow, sighs
Delete