Afenifere accuses police of poor investigation of murder of Pa Fasoranti’s daughter

The Yoruba socio-political group, Afenifere, has accused the police in Ondo State of not being serious about resolving the murder of Olufunke Olakurin, the daughter of its leader, Reuben Fasoranti.

The group in a statement on Sunday by its spokesperson, Yinka Odumakin, said it was compelled to speak out over the lackadaisical attitude of the police in investigating the gruesome murder of the woman.

Mrs Olakurin was murdered in July around Ore in Ondo State by persons suspected to be Fulani herdsmen, who also took captive other persons during the attack.

According to Mr Odumakin, the police had shown signs that it had no plans to launch any serious investigation into the matter.

“Mr Kehinde Fasoranti, the junior brother of the deceased had stated openly a day after the incident that the police in Ore told him the 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 statement read.

“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.”

Mr Odumakin alleged that there was no attempt by the police to carry out any autopsy on the corpse until the family and Afenifere also demanded one from the police before the burial.

“One was carried out and only that report was given to the family when they went to collect the car,” he said.

“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.

“Furthermore, a few days after the killing, a staff of the deceased’s husband, Bankole Olatunbosun, was arrested as he was said to be in touch with Mr Olakunrin’s driver, Femi Ajayi, who drove the Sienna bus in the deceased convoy.

 

“A week after the killing, Femi was brought into the family house in Akure by police officers in the anti-kidnap unit.

 

“The story from the crime scene was that Femi got down from the Sienna bus and followed the gunmen who killed Mrs Olakunrin.

 

“He claimed he was kidnapped but there is no evidence of ransom requested from him or his family. He and Bankole Olatunbosun are now free men. Femi even sauntered into the Fasoranti family house three days ago.

 

“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 high profile 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 and by extension the authors of ‘where are the cows?’ Where are the killers of Funke Olakunrin?”

 

But the police have reacted to the allegation, denying that they were unserious in carrying out investigations on the matter.

 

“We are not lackadaisical in our investigations of the matter,” Femi Joseph, Police Public Relations Officer for Ondo Command, told PREMIUM TIMES on Sunday.

 

“We are investigating the case and we would soon talk to the public about it. We would let the public know when we conclude investigations.

 

“We are not sleeping over it. We are not lackadaisical. We would let the public know how far we have done very soon.”