‘…Joy became disrespectful exhibiting criminal tendencies’
At about 4.30 pm on Saturday last week, there was a knock at the gate to the residence of Dr. Fumilola Adefolalu, A lecturerer at the Federal University of Technology, Minna. Alone at home she enquired ‘who is there?’ and made her way to the gate, peeped and saw the familiar face of Joy Afekafe; a housemaid she had laid off a few days earlier. Unknown to her, the former housemaid was not alone; she was with two other assailants lurking behind the gate.
She opened and the gate and the two marauders crashed in, seized and pushed her back into the house. They removed their knives and slit her throat and she bled to death. With mission accomplished, Joy and her conspirators took whatever valuables they could lay their hands on, and fled the scene leaving behind the blood-stained knives and the lifeless body of the lecturer.
Blueprint Weekend’s investigations revealed that the two other assailants have already been identified as Walex and Smart by the prime suspect, Joy, whom she also identified as her classmates. It was learnt further that in their haste to escape from the scene after slaughtering Joy’s former madam, who was also a pastor at the Voice of Mercy Church, Minna, the teenage assassins did not hesitate to cart away the deceased’s phones, laptop, car battery and other valuables. They must have also took away cash available at home before locking up the body in the house and vanishing with the keys.
This reporter also gathered that while her criminal friends retreated into an unknown hideout, Joy ran into a hidey-hole in Gbagenu area of Minna. However, her hideout was not out of the investigative searchlights of the police detectives who picked her up two days after the heinous crime was reported. It was learnt further that Joy, still only 14-years-old, has been arrested and is currently singing on why and how she recruited her classmates to kill the lady who had been kind enough to offer her a job as a housemaid because she attends the same church and on the recommendation of church leaders and pastors.
How the deceased met her killer, Joy Afekafe
As a devoted Christian and pastor of the Voice of Mercy Church, Minna, the safety of Dr. Fumilola Adefolalu was of paramount concern to the church leaders and the congregation, especially as she was staying alone. The church elders had impressed it on her to get somebody else within the compound who could keep her company and eradicate the loneliness within the premises.
It was learnt that this became necessary after the female pastor’s three children had left Minna and secured jobs in other states after their graduation. Pastor Bolaji Olanikpekun, one of the pastors of the Voice of Mercy Church, told journalists in Minna that Joy Afekafe is a member of the church from a family of four children with their mother living away from them while their father died some years back.
According to him, a student of the FUT, Minna, was staying in the boys’ quarters at the residence till last year before travelling abroad.
“Since then our pastor, Dr. Adefolalu, had been alone in the compound which made us to prevail on her to take in another tenant. A few months ago, she informed the church elders and pastors of her choice of Joy Afekafe who is also a church member, to stay with her,” Pastor Olanikpekun said.
He said further that that for the church to give an approval, the pastors invited Joy’s mother to seek her consent and attestation to her character. According to him, the church leaders believed it was one of the kind gestures by the lecturer towards assisting the underprivileged in society, especially as it was extended to the church teenage girl who had been roaming the streets without parental care.
Blueprint Weekend, however, learnt that the church leaders at that particular time did not pay the deserved attention to the inherent character decadence of the teenage girl as they focused on the immediate benefits for both parties. It was gathered that arrangements were made and Joy was presented to the church by her mother on October 1, 2023. The church thereafter handed over Joy to her new madam and employer as a house-help.
However, unknown to the church leaders, they just handed over the girl who would turn round to kill the very special pastor whose protection they desperately sought. It was leant that Joy and her siblings are from a poor family background and needed assistance which was one of the reasons the murdered lecturer considered her qualified to pick the job.
Further checks revealed that days and weeks later, part of Joy’s character showed more of an evil than the holy and innocent-looking girl the church pastors had presented to Dr. Adefolalu.
Pastor Olanikpekun said, “Monies began to vanish from where they were kept. Joy would deny even if they were only two of them at home. She became very disrespectful and began to exhibit traits of criminal behaviours within two to three weeks. We, therefore, advised that she should be laid off and this was done barely a week ago (before the incident).”
It was gathered that after laying her off, Joy did not take it lightly as she planned revenge against her former madam. She reportedly kept herself away from the church members as she stayed with her criminal friends and plotted to kill the woman who had cared for her. The church was taken unawares when Joy and her cohorts struck on that fateful Saturday and took away the life of one of its dedicated pastors.
Justice for Adefolalu
The Police, according to DSP Wasiu Abiodun, the Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO) of the Niger state police Command, have arrested Joy as prime suspect while the manhunt for her criminal friends has been intensified.
He explained that during interrogation the suspect confessed that she served as housemaid to the deceased for three weeks before she was laid off due to her misdeed in the house.
“After she was laid off, she met her classmates called Walex and Smart, narrated her ordeal to them and conspired to attack the lecturer at her residence. Walex and Smart later entered the house beat the deceased, hit her head on the stood and stabbed her with a knife brought by Walex while Smart took another knife from the kitchen and stabbed her severally.”
According to the PPRO, the suspect said that the deceased phone, Laptop were taken away while they also removed the battery of the car that was parked in the compound before they fled the scene.
The police have, however, assured that the culprits would be arrested and prosecuted in accordance with the law.
Meanwhile, the church has called on the law enforcement agencies not to leave any stone un-turned to fish out all those involved in the heinous crime. In seeking justice for the deceased, the church urged the security agencies to conduct thorough and impartial investigation in ensuring that all evidences are diligently examined and all leads followed.
“We are seeking justice for her untimely and unjust demise. We trust that the law will ensure that those responsible for this horrific crime are held accountable to fullest extent of the law,” the church said in a statement issued in Minna Thursday.
The church, however, requested for the privacy of the deceased’s family and the church to be respected as they mourn Dr. Adefolalu.
