Man beheads friend, dumps him in the forest

For threatening a friend during a quarrel with a friend, 22-year-old Mohammed Farouk, has paid with his life as he was beheaded and his remains dumped in a shallow grave in the forest in Okene, Kogi State.

According to findings, the deceased, a help-hand at a bakery factory in Okene, was said to have had an altercation with one Ijogbon, (now at large), during which the deceased threatened to deal with him.

Apparently moved by the threat, Ijogbon whose real name remained unknown as at press time, allegedly mobilized some ‘guys’, who abducted

Farouk from his home about three weeks ago and killed him.

Conducting the public search correspondent round the forest where Farouk’s body was buried, the state Commissioner of Police, Seidu Madawaki, said that the police had been on the trail of the assailants since the deceased was abducted.

He said that, crack detectives made a breakthrough in their investigation when one Saka and Wahab (surnames withheld) were arrested for their complicity in the abduction and subsequent murder of Farouk

The duo, the Commissioner said, later led detectives to the thick forest where the deceased was tortured and later killed by the hoodlums.

Speaking to speaking to the witnesses, one of the suspects, Saka said that they were recruited to abduct the deceased, adding that Ijogbon  shot him dead and had since fled the town.

The Police Commissioner, who wondered how a man’s life could be cut short due to a small quarrel, described the act as “ too cruel, despicable and unacceptable” and promised to prosecute those implicated in the matter.

It was gathered that Farouk was abducted at Lafia quarters in Okene on January 22 and the decomposed body was found by the police in a forest along Obeiba – Egge road in Adavi Local Government Area of the State.

When the body was exhumed yesterday, for autopsy, the medical  director of Okene General Hospital, Dr. Abdusalam Abubakar said that the preliminary report showed that Farouk was gruesomely murdered.

He confirmed that the head of the deceased was severed and the private parts and some other parts were removed.

Condemning the spate of killings in that area in recent times, the chairman of the Local Government , Ahmed Ogembe said that recently,a community leader in the area, Chief Ben Ochu Baiye, was killed in  questionable circumstances.