Strange as jobless man goes mad, dies in friend’s house....SEE PHOTO

THE SUSPECTS

Firstclass newsline learnt that a jobless and desperate, 24-year-old
Taiwo Bamidele saw an opportunity as soon as he met his Lagos-based
friend, Akinkunmi Odetunde, during a wedding ceremony in Akure, Ondo
State on Saturday, May 9, 2015. If he had anything on his mind at the
time, it would have been the hope that his life might change for the
better once he reached Lagos.
Odetunde, who works in Lagos as a tricycle operator told firstclass
newsline that when Bamidele saw him, he immediately asked to follow
him to Lagos in search of greener pastures.
"I did not see anything wrong in him wanting to follow me to Lagos
when I went to attend the wedding event. So, when I was leaving the
following day, we left together and we have both been living at my
sister's apartment at Mile 2 Estate, Amuwo Odofin, Lagos,"Odetunde
said.
According to 30-year-old Odetunde, apart from his sister and her
husband, another friend of his, a Delta State indigene, Francis Jacob,
also lives in the same apartment.
But on Friday, May 15, a breakfast of semovita and okra soup would
bring on the household a calamity which has so far defied explanation.
Odetunde, who is being held at the homicide unit of the Department of
Criminal Investigations, Yaba, Lagos, along with his friend, Jacob,
said the food was cooked by his sister.
He said, "We all ate the same food that morning including my sister
and her husband. But by afternoon, Taiwo (Bamidele) started to
complain of fever.
"He said the fever meant it was likely that he had developed malaria.
So, I went to buy him malaria drug but as soon as he swallowed the
drug, he vomited it.
"He told me that he would prefer concoction, so I bought him
concoction around 4pm which he took but did not vomit."
Odetunde said he had thought that as soon as his friend slept off, the
fever would disappear and he would soon be fine. By midnight, he knew
he was wrong and that something more serious than just fever was
happening to Bamidele.
He said around 12 am that night, he was suddenly roused from sleep by
the sound of laughter.
Odetunde said, "I wondered who was suddenly laughing in the middle of
the night. I woke up and realised that my friend was the one laughing.
He sat up on the bed around 12 midnight and started to laugh.
"I asked why he was laughing. But the laughter only intensified. It
got to a point that everybody had woken up in the house and we agreed
that it was necessary that we restrained him because he had started
becoming aggressive as he laughed.
"The more we restrained him, the more he became aggressive and at a
point all of us in the house could not restrain him again.
"He escaped from our grips and forced the door open that night. He
laughed as he ran outside while we tried to catch him without success.
"As he ran outside, he fell and knocked his head on a wall, fell down
and stood up again and ran off."
Odetunde said throughout that night, they looked everywhere for
Bamidele but could not find him until 3am on Saturday when they
approached a vigilante group that had captured him.
The vigilante group, according to him were about to start whipping him
when they got there.
He said, "We had to beg them not to flog him. They soon realised that
something was wrong with him too as a result of the abnormal way he
was acting.
"They told me that he was becoming mentally unstable and that I should
look for a rope so that they could restrain him. They said if we left
him, he could run into a speeding vehicle or even jump into a canal
that is close to our area. When I got the rope, we tied his leg and
hands.
"I knew many of his family members so I started calling some of them
on the phone. The only person I got through to was his father, who
promised that very early the following morning, he would come. But
unfortunately before he came, Taiwo (Bamidele) died."
When asked what could have happened to bring about the sudden change
in Bamidele before he died, Odetunde insisted that nothing sinister
was done to him to make him develop such a sudden mental illness.
He said within the six years he knew the deceased, he had no sign of
mental illness and neither did he drink or smoke.
"How could I do anything bad to a friend who is like family to me?
Immediately he died, I was even the one who reported the incident at
the police station where I was detained," Odetunde said.
Odetunde's sister and her husband are said to be on the run at the moment.
Firstclass newsline learnt that Bamidele's family have insisted that
they do not want any police prosecution but the police at the FESTAC
division transferred the case to the DCI, Yaba for further
investigation.
Bamidele's father who was also summoned to the DCI said he had nothing
to say, adding that "everything is in the hands of God. God knows
best."
He did not volunteer any other information on his late son and whether
Bamidele had any problem that pointed to mental disorder in any form.
The Police Public Relations Officer, Lagos State Police Command, Mr.
Kenneth Nwosu, who confirmed the story, said the suspects were only
being held pending when investigations would be concluded.
Firstclassnewsline.net