A farmer who simply identified herself as Mrs Nike tells PETER DADA about the circumstances that led to the death of her 31-year-old daughter, Olajoke Oloyede, inside a church in Idanre Local Government Area of Ondo State
What is your occupation?
I am a farmer, and I am also into trading. My name is Nike, I am 55 years old.
What is your relationship with the deceased?
She was my first daughter.
It was gathered that she died in a church in Idanre. Can you narrate how it happened?
What I know is that she and her sister (cousin) went for a burial. Before then, the cousin brought some clothing for her for the ceremony a few days to the event. I was not around then, and when I got to the house, I saw some shinning pieces of clothing on the floor. I asked my daughter about the pieces of clothing on the ground, and she said that her younger cousin brought them. So, she wore that attire when they went for the burial.
After a while, on January 9, this year to be precise, my daughter said that her cousin called her, and she went to meet her in her house. Then the following day, which was January 10, I saw my daughter and her cousin discussing in my house. On that same day (January 10), she carried her bag and left my house. I called her line several times, but it wasn’t going through.
What happened after she left the house?
After five days, somebody said they saw my daughter, and that she was with her paternal grandmother. I quickly rushed to the place. When I got there, I asked her grandmother where she was, and she gave me the number of somebody who she was staying with. I tried the line; it wasn’t going through. I also went to the house they said she was, but I didn’t see her.
Later, I called her to ask of her whereabouts because her husband had asked her to go back to their house in Akure. Luckily, my daughter responded when I called her. When I asked her where she was so I could give her some foodstuffs, she said she wasn’t in Akure, but she told me where she was when I spoke with her on the phone.
Where did she say she was?
She said she was in a church. So, when I got the information about her whereabouts, I left around 6pm to look for her. She was even waiting for me there. When I got there, I met her in the church and asked her what she was doing. She explained that she was asked by her sister to move out of her house late in the night, but she didn’t know where to go. That was why she ended up in the church with a pastor. She also said she explained to the pastor what her sister did.
Why did her sister (cousin) chase her out from the house late in the night?
When I asked her if she was quarrelling with her, she said that they had no quarrel, but that she (her sister) told her that she would be having a visitor. So, the pastor asked her to stay in the church after she explained everything to him. She added that the younger sister was always attending the church programmes on Wednesdays and Sundays. My daughter didn’t tell me anything more than that.
Did you make any attempt to take her home the day you met her in the church?
I asked her to follow me home that day; I don’t know if she was being hypnotised but she said she wasn’t coming home. I didn’t know she would be killed.
When did she start living in that church?
I don’t know when she started living with her sister and when she started living in the church. Her elder sister knows about everything. My daughter wasn’t sick and even the pastor said it as well. She was still staying with me as of October last year, 2022.
You claimed that she was raped and killed. Do you have any evidence to support your allegation?
We did an autopsy, but her sister said when they took her corpse to the general hospital, the doctor discovered that she was strangled.
Where was her husband when she was staying with you and her sister?
Her husband is outside the country; it was around December that she got used to living with her sister. She was living with her husband before the man travelled out of the country.
How old was she when she died?
She was 31 years old, going to 32 years before she died. She had an 11-month-old baby.
In your last conversation with her, did she say anything about the pastor or the church?
She didn’t tell me anything about the pastor, she only said her sister sent her away from her (sister’s) house and when she begged her sister, she accused her of dating her husband. The only thing I know later is that I met her dead body on that Wednesday in that church.
