Shockwaves are reverberating across Yorùbáland and the global Yorùbá diaspora following the sudden death of the Baba Ọba (King’s Father) of the famed Oyotunji African Village in South Carolina, USA. The late Baba Ọba, Lukman Arohunfale, a revered socialite and traditionalist, passed away under circumstances already sparking fierce controversy. His death comes just days after he publicly accused the newly installed Alaafin of Oyo, His Imperial Majesty Oba Akeem Adéyẹmọ Owoade, of allegedly ordering his courtiers to beat him mercilessly during a recent courtesy visit to the Oyo palace in Nigeria. In a widely circulated voice recording, the deceased recounted how what was meant to be a simple homage turned violent. Although the Baba Ọba had reportedly battled ill health in the past year, growing insinuations suggest that the alleged physical assault may have aggravated his condition, ultimately leading to his untimely death. The palace in Oyo recently denied that s...
A young woman Celine Dookhran, 20, was raped and murdered by her “obsessed” uncle before her body was padlocked in a deep freezer, a court heard.
Dookhran was kidnapped along with a second woman by her Uncle, Mujahid Arshid, 33, and his employee Vincent Tappu, 28, who took them to a six-bedroom house that Arshid, a builder, had been working at, the Old Bailey heard."
Both women were then raped and their throats cut in what prosecutors described as a “horrific crime” on July 19 last year.
Arshid considered dissolving the bodies of both ladies in acid or hiding them in a chest-high freezer he installed two days before, it was claimed.
The second woman managed to survive and raised the alarm from hospital, which lead to the discovery of Miss Dookhran’s body.
Opening the prosecution case, Crispin Aylett QC warned jurors: “The evidence that gives rise to those charges is, I am afraid, simply horrific. You will have to steel yourselves for what is to come.”
Mr Aylett said Arshid had become “obsessed” with Miss Dookhran but knew that she was having a sexual relationship with her boyfriend, a Libyan Muslim.
The following day, on July 19, Arshid and his accomplice Tappu burst into Miss Dookhran’s room, stuffed socks into both women’s mouths, which they also covered with tape. Tied up the women's hands and feet together and each of them was wrapped in a builder’s dust sheet.”
Arshid scooped up clothes, underwear and phones to give the “entirely false” impression Miss Dookhran had run away, it was claimed.
Mr Aylett said the women were taken from the house wrapped in dust sheets and put in the boot of the Arshid’s pick up truck. Tappu played no further part, jurors were told.
The court heard that Arshid had the set of keys to a six-bedroomed detached house between Wimbledon and Kingston where he had been working and took the women there, tying them to pipes in the utility room.
The court heard that Arshid had the set of keys to a six-bedroomed detached house between Wimbledon and Kingston where he had been working and took the women there, tying them to pipes in the utility room.
He allegedly took the second victim – who cannot be named for legal reasons – upstairs and raped her, before doing the same thing to his niece, Miss Dookhran.
Mr Aylett said:
“In the bathroom of that house, he cut Celine’s throat, most likely with the lock knife. “With her mouth still stuffed with a sock, Celine died from the combined effect of the restriction of her airwaves and the blood that she lost.”
The court heard Arshid then took the second woman, who is also in her 20s, upstairs and cut her throat, telling her she would be “dead within ten minutes”.
He put Celine’s body into the deep freezer and locked it with a padlock but the second woman survived and was later taken to hospital.
Based on the second woman's information, Arshid was arrested the same night in Folkestone, Kent, where he had fled to.
Arshid was charged with murder, attempted murder, two counts of kidnap, two counts of rape, two counts of conspiracy to falsely imprison another, possessing a firearm with intent – a Taser.
He however, denied all the charges which included one count of sexual assault, and one count of assault by penetration, involving the second woman between November 2008 and November 2010.
His accomplice, Tappu, of Acton, west London, denied two counts of kidnap, two counts of conspiracy to falsely imprison another, and one count of possessing a firearm with intent.
Source: UK Telegraph
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