Who killed Aishat?

…Confusion trails death of mother of 3 in Libya

• Our daughter was murdered by human traffickers –Family
• No, she died after abortion –Suspect 

FOR the entire family of Jibril Ahwesu of Ijanikin in Oto Awori Local Council Development Area of Lagos State, these are trying times.

Since members of the family received the tragic news of the death of their daughter, Aishat Awesu, in Libya, life has not remained the same. Aishat allegedly travelled to Tripoli, Libya, with the assistance of one Alfa Mustapha and two other persons in search of a better life.

According to the deceased’s mother, Madam Amurat Awesu, sometime in early February this year, she got information that her daughter, Aishat, was planning to travel to Tripoli, Libya. She said she vehemently objected to the trip. The country, she noted, had been at war, and the place could be too dangerous for her daughter. In an attempt to stop her, she immediately alerted other members of the family, who immediately summoned Aishat. Upon interrogation, she admitted that she was planning to travel out of Nigeria. She told them that Alfa Mustapha, one Mr. Ojo and another man were helping her to process documents to enable her make the trip to Libya.

Not satisfied with her explanation, Mrs. Amurat directed that her son, Aishat’s elder brother, should accompany Aishat to Alfa’s residence so as to investigate the matter and to warn the man to leave her daughter alone.

The brother, who identified himself as Awesu Junior, told the reporter that when he got to Alfa Mustapha’s residence, he was immediately convinced that his sister had fallen into the hands of human traffickers.

He said: “After collecting the Alfa’s number, I warned him to leave my sister alone. But to my greatest surprise, my sister behaved like a person that had been hypnotised and couldn’t see reason she should back out of the arrangement. After leaving Alfa’s residence, I warned her never to return to the man because I suspected that she might be harmed.”

Awesu revealed that to his greatest surprise, on February 16, Aishat sneaked out of the house, abandoning her three children. “When we noticed her disappearance, we started searching for her and before we could report to the police, she called her daughter that she was already in Libya,” he said.

The news of Aishat’s journey to Libya devastated her aged mother, who has since then, taken ill. While she was still recuperating from the shock of her daughter’s trip, Alfa called on April 23 to inform the family that Aishat had died in Libya.

The family immediately reported the matter at the Homicide Section of the Nigeria Police, Force CID Annex, Alagbon, Lagos. And police detectives were able to arrest Alfa Mustapha, Ojo and the third suspect for their complicity in the death of Aishat.

The family, through their counsel, Oba Olayiwola of Keepers Legal Practitioners, on April 28, 2016 despatched a petition to the Deputy Inspector General of Police, Department of Criminal investigation, Force Headquarters, Abuja; the Nigeria Police Service Commission; the Assistant Inspector-General, AIG Zone 2 Onikan, Lagos; the Commissioner of Police, Lagos State and the Lagos State Ministry of Justice.

In the petition, a copy of which was made available to the reporter, the family alleged that their daughter was a victim of human traffickers, ritualists and kidnappers. The family pleaded with the relevant authorities to ensure that those involved in the disappearance of their daughter should face justice.

“If our daughter was truly dead, we want to see her corpse so that autopsy could be conducted to know the actual cause of her death before giving her a befitting burial,” the family noted.

A female member of the Awesu family also alleged a foul play over the circumstances surrounding the death of the woman. In a telephone conversation, she told the reporter that the suspects forged the name and signature of the family in a letterhead that was sent to Libya as the authorising letter for Aishat to be buried in Libya. She alleged that the letters were found in the suspects’ homes when detectives conducted a search on the homes before their arrest.

The reporter also gathered that during interrogation, the suspects told detectives that by the time Aishat got to Libya, she was five months pregnant and that in an attempt to abort the pregnancy, she developed complications that led to her death.

This statement was, however, debunked by the mother of the deceased, who described such talk as wicked lies by the suspects to cover up their evil deeds.

In a passionate appeal to the Inspector General of Police and other relevant authorities, the octogenarian mother of the deceased said she wanted justice served on the suspects. She also said the body of her daughter must be returned to her for proper burial if truly she was dead.

She also lamented that in spite of the arrest of the principal suspects and the evidence, linking them to the crime, the police were yet to charge the matter to court.

“Instead of charging the suspects to court, what we heard was that the police have granted bail to the suspects. This could be an attempt to allow the alleged killers of my daughter to escape justice,” she said.