Encomium
-How her dog was poisoned, kidnap saga
Pastor Ituah cries, ‘All is well’
PASTOR Ituah Ighodalo, the Senior Pastor of Trinity House Church, and his beautiful wife, Ibidunni have every reason to continuously thank God for preserving their lives. For, if not for God and their mental alertness, the pastor would probably have been dead by now and is wife would have been kidnapped and probably raped by one of their domestic staff, Abdulkareem Mohammed, a 24 year-old man employed by the couple to take care of their dogs.
Abdulkareem Mohammed was not alone in this murder and kidnap for sex and ransom scheme.
He was ably assisted by Paul Eke, a 29 year-old security guard within Osborne Foreshore Estate, Ikoyi, Lagos and one Akeem Makinde-Ewuosi, a 36 year-old witch-doctor, who prepared the poison with which to kill Pastor Ituah Ighodalo before kidnapping his wife, Ibidun.
Mohammed, the Ighodalos’ dog handler was the mastermind of the diabolical scheme. He was the one who had sexual fantasies of Mrs. Ibidun Ighodalo and was desperate to make his sexual ambition a reality.
He told Paul Eke about his obsession to sleep with his Oga’s wife. It was Paul Eke, who introduced Mohammed to Akeem Makinde-Ewuosi, the herbalist who gave him the juju he would use to charm his madam to bed and also demand a ransom of N80 million from her. To this extent, he gave him a black soap and sponge to bath and throw away.
But before this could be done, Oga patapata (Pastor Ituah) has to be gotten rid of. So, he (herbalist) gave Mohammed the concoction with which to poison him. To test the potency of the concoction, the herbalist or is it a witchdoctor now, told Mohammed to test it on one of the dogs in his care. He did. He tested it on Simbia, one of the six dogs he was taking care of for the couple. He mixed the concoction with Simbia’s food and before you could say Simbia, the dog convulsed, vomited blood and died within a twinkling of an eye.
Among the six dogs of the couple, Simbia happened to be Mrs. Ibidun Ighodalo’s favourite. So, she just couldn’t absorb the sudden death of her favourite pet.
Pronto! She sent for the veterinary doctor who conducted an autopsy on the dog and the vet doctor came out with the result of food poisoning.
Mohammed, who was the dog handler was the first person the couple suspected. He was interrogated by the couple and before you know it, he started singing like a canary!
By Tuesday, February 10, 2015, the Ighodalos called in the police to arrest Mohammed and his accomplices. By Thursday, February 12, 2015, Mohammed and his partners had made enough confessions to the police to warrant their appearance in the law court of competent jurisdiction.
On that Thursday, February 12, 2015, the three of them were arraigned before Magistrate A. O. Awogboro of Tinubu Magistrate Court, Lagos on a two count charge of attempted murder and poisoning.
The public prosecutor, Chidi Okoye told the court that Mohammed, between January 28 and February 10, 2015, at 10 p.m at the Ighodalos 4B, Ogun Street, Osborne Foreshore Estate, Ikoyi, Lagos residence tested the poison he got from Makinde Ewuosi on the dog and it died.
Though, the three young men made confessional statements to the police of the heinous crime they were about to commit, they still pleaded not guilty. They were granted N500,000 bail each with two sureties in the like sum. Their case was adjourned to March 18, 2015.
When ENCOMIUM Weekly called Pastor Ituah Ighodalo, he didn’t take our call. One of his aides who picked our call on his behalf, however, said he was too busy to respond to our call directly.
The pastor later responded to our text message with this terse statement, “All is well.”
His wife also responded through a text message. She responded to the twist to the story on internet that the spiritualist, Akeem Makinde-Ewuosi was her personal spiritualist, who had been helping her to be pregnant.
This is what she wrote, “Hello Tolani, hope you are well. My P.A told me you called to clarify some story. It’s late for me to call but I thought to let you know that I don’t have a spiritualist, never and never will. God bless and goodnite.”
The penalty for attempted murder is life imprisonment while poisoning attracts 14 years jail term.
– TOLANI ABATTI
