A middle-aged man, Isiaka Orebinrin, died in
controversial circumstances recently during one of his business trips with
friends and his family suspects foul play as regards the cause of his death.
Tunde Ogunesan examines the alleged foul play in the death of the Ile-Ife born
spare parts seller.
FRIENDSHIP is about trust, but when
such trust is betrayed, who then would one trust since no man can live alone.
Such expression can best describe the scenario which led to the death of a
young man, Isiaka Orebinrin, a spare parts seller at the popular Gate Market in
Ibadan, Oyo State.
Orebinrin, who hailed from Ile-Ife,
according to Crime and Security investigation, was full of life on Monday, May
7, 2012.
Unknown to him, he had embarked on
what turned out to be his last business trip on earth. According to sources,
Orebinrin, in company of his friends, simply identified as Pastor, Baba Rilwan
and Alfa Rafiu, proceeded on their normal business trip to Ile-Ife, Osun State.
On Tuesday, May 8, 2012, Orebinrin returned home, according to his wife,
Omotola, in order to get more money.
On Wednesday morning, the wife
informed that her husband told her that he saw a car which he intended to buy,
being a spare parts seller, and had come home for more money.
According to her, after his
departure on Wednesday morning, he later called her to inquire about her
well-being and the children's before his mobile phone went dead later in the
day.
About 10.00 a.m on Thursday,
Pastor, one of his friends with whom he travelled, came to meet his wife,
requesting that her husband sent him to his younger brother, Dapo. Not sensing
any strange feeling, Omotola wondered why her husband would send his friend to
Dapo and not to her. Out of curiousity, she tried his number again; still, the
number didn't go through.
According to her, “My thought was
that maybe his handset had low battery not until Dapo came to ask after his
elder brother. Then, about 12.00 p.m, my church members came to my shop to lead
me home and broke the news to me. Invariably, the entire neighbourhood had been
filled with the news but I was the only one that was deaf to it,” she said.
The family was fed with the story
that Orebinrin died when a gang of armed robbers, who feigned as commuters,
joined their bus at Ikire on their way to Ibadan and attacked them. Orebinrin,
it was claimed was thrown out of the bus when he engaged in fisticuffs with one
of the armed robbers. But the family suspected a crooked story. According to
family sources, “It is not in their practice to carry passengers whenever
they're travelling. They usually go on chartered bus, how then would they have
carried passengers on their way,” the source queried.
When the family members were about
to collect his corpse, their suspicion increased. According to one of the
sources, “the family members could not believe their ears when set to recover
his remains, one of his friends told them that they would need a nylon bag to
carry his corpse because he was thrown out of the bus and an on-coming vehicle
mashed him, crushing his body in the process.
As if that was not enough, a family
source informed Crime and Security that “when the family members got to where
Orebinrin's remains were, they were surprised to find out that his body had
been mutilated. The head, private part and one of the feet were missing coupled
with the fact that the deceased's body which was said to have been thrown out
of the bus had no traces of such,” informed the source who pleaded anonymity.
The state of Orebinrin's remains
was what gave the family a confirmation that he was not attacked by armed
robbers as said by his friends.
The family, according to Crime and
Security's investigation, suspected foul play on three accounts. First, when he
was reported dead and his family members were planning to bring back his
remains, one of his friends was said to have hinted the family members of the
need to bring along a nylon sack to ferry his remains. Secondly, when they got
to the scene of the purported venue where he was said to have been mashed by
on-coming vehicles after being thrown out of the bus, 'there were no traces of
blood spill or some parts of his body being mashed on the ground, even as the
corpse was found naked and looked like it was dumped at that spot' and did not
look as his friends claimed.
Thirdly, at a particular occasion,
the source claimed that when Orebinrin's friends were invited for briefing
differently, the three of them- Pastor, Baba Rilwan and Alfa Rafiu, gave three
different accounts of the same event.
Then, the parts of his body which
were missing raised another poser on the cause of his death.
Ultimately, a day after his death,
one of his female friends, a lady photographer at Omolade was said to have
gossiped to some of their neighbours' hearing that “they had planned to kidnap
Daddy Tunde (Orebinrin) on Tuesday but he escaped,” saying he shouldn't have
returned for the trip the next day. The said photographer, investigations also
revealed, had been sending an informal message to Orebinrin's wife that they
should take things easy with the suspects, adding that they would be the one to
take care of her after the demise of her husband.
The case, Crime and Security
gathered was reported at the Criminal Investigation Department (CID), Iyaganku,
Ibadan, and is still being investigated by the police.
A policeman at the CID, Iyaganku
Station, Ibadan, who pleaded anonymity, while speaking with Crime and Security,
said, “nobody can claim to know the cause of his (Orebinrin) death.
“What the police investigation has
revealed so far is that of a death through armed robbery. However, investigations
into the matter are still on-going.”
In an interview with Crime and
Security, Orebinrin's wife said her late husband's friend's hands were not
clean, but said the family and the police would do justice to the case and help
bring the killers of her husband to book.
“The three of them are well known
to me as good friends of my husband. They used to come here, eat here in our
sitting room in the same plate with my husband. Only God will judge if truly
their hands are clean because with my husband we trusted them as our friends
and confidants, but today, apart from God Almighty, only they and my late
husband knew exactly what happened. I am sure whoever did this or have a hand
in it will not go scot free in Jesus name,” she said.
Orebinrin, 38, an orphan, was said to be having up to
between N250,000 and N300,000 in his pocket during the trip