Lekan Adekanbi, the prime suspect in the gruesome killing of a couple, Mr Kehinde and Mrs Bukola Fatinoye, has confessed that he and his gang members slaughtered the family after forcing them to transfer N1,102,000.

Adekanbi, the driver to the wife of the late Kehinde, said he organised his fellow cultists to rob the family because they refused to grant his request for a loan.

The suspect stated this on Friday while being paraded alongside four others — two cult members, his mother and fiancée.

The five suspects were paraded by the state Police Public Relations Officer, Abimbola Oyeyemi, at the command headquarters, Eleweran, Abeokuta.

While speaking to journalists on his role in the incident, Adekanbi, who escaped from the police net before he was rearrested, said he only wanted to rob the family.

He said he started working with the couple in 2010 without a salary increase and several attempts to convince them to jerk up his salary failed.

He claimed that he requested a loan, which was not granted.

The suspect explained that he then invited two others, Ahmed Odetola a.k.a Akamo; and Waheed Adeniyi, aka Koffi, to join him in the robbery.

He said contrary to the belief that he brought the couple from the church after the crossover night, he left their house hours before the service and returned with his gang to lay an ambush for them.

Adekanbi said his gang pounced on the couple immediately they entered the house.

He recalled restraining an Alsatian dog at the gate because he was familiar with the animal and usually fed it.

“We forced the husband to transfer money from his account to the Kuda Bank account of Ahmed Adetola, but the transfer failed.

“Since that failed, I gave the deceased my Access Bank account, to which the sum of N1,102,000 was transferred at gunpoint.

“When I realised that my identity had been known through my bank account, I decided with others to terminate their lives. That was when Waheed Adeniyi, aka Koffi, took a knife from their kitchen and slaughtered the husband, Kehinde Fatinoye, while I used a sledgehammer to hit the wife, Bukola Fatinoye, in the head and she died on the spot,” he added.

On how they got the couple’s son, Oreoluwa and their adopted child Felix Olorunyomi, the suspect noted that while the operation was on, the duo walked in.

He said their hands were tied to the back with rope, as the gang drove them to the Ogun River Bridge at Adigbe, where they were thrown into the river.

The suspect said, “First, we are all sinners; may God forgive us all. To be truthful, I had no intention of killing my boss or anyone as Akamo said.

“What happened will serve as a lesson to all rich men that show wickedness to the poor.

“I was employed as a driver in September 2018 while they were still living at Quarry. After six months of working as their driver, I was asked to do their household chores, including sweeping. My salary was N25,000.

“I adhered to it without complaining. In 2020, I planned to request a loan. I eventually made the request on January 16 on our way back from a party in Lagos. I asked Mr Fatinoye to give me advance payment so that I could invest it and he promised to grant it, but it was not granted.

“In 2021, I made the same request from the wife, Mrs Bukola Fatinoye. She also promised to speak to her husband about it. But that was all about it.

“I made another effort on the request when he celebrated his birthday on June 30. I went to him, prayed for him and again asked him for the loan. He again promised to grant it.

“Also on July 5, 2022, I told his brother who introduced us, Mr Seyi Fatinoye, about my request and he promised to speak to his brother on my behalf. I waited till September and nothing came. So, I went to Mr Seyi at his house in Obada to help me with another job either in Lagos or even Abeokuta or federal. But he asked me to be patient that he would speak to his brother.”

Adekanbi said the money they collected from the couple was shared among the three of them a few hours after the robbery at One-Ata, Abeokuta.

He said when the news got to them that Olorunyomi survived, one of his gang members, Odetola, regretted not shooting him dead.

Adekanbi said he parted with N500,000 out of the N1,102,000 transferred by the late husband.

Adekanbi’s pregnant fiancée, who identified herself only as Tope, said she met him in August 2022.

She said she harboured him after the incident without knowing the magnitude of the crime.

“I did not know that he wiped out an entire family,” she added.

While parading the suspects, the state police spokesman, Oyeyemi, said they were all arrested following painstaking intelligence.

Oyeyemi said, “The arrested suspect, Lekan Adekanbi, initially collapsed in the cell on January 2, 2023, and he was rushed to a hospital for medical care.

“But while in the hospital, he suddenly jumped from the bed and escaped through the fence of the hospital. His escape confirmed police suspicion of his involvement in the crime.

“Two police teams, in compliance with the CP’s directive, embarked on a technical and intelligence-driven investigation and traced the movement of the suspect to his elder brother in Iseyin, Oyo State, but he had left the place before the arrival of the police.

“The teams further intensified their efforts which yielded positive results when Lekan Adekanbi was apprehended in his hideout somewhere in Abeokuta on January 21, 2023.

“On interrogation, Lekan Adekanbi, who had been the couple’s driver since 2018, confessed to being the mastermind of the dastardly act. He confessed further that he took the step because the couple refused to increase his salary, and that he approached them for a loan to buy a motorcycle, but they didn’t oblige him.”

“Waheed Adeniyi, aka Koffi, and Ahmed Odetola, aka Akamo, were both apprehended at Ogere on Thursday, February 9, 2023.

“The three suspects, who are members of the Aiye Confraternity, have all confessed to their various roles in the gruesome and callous murder of the family.”