Firstly, it was the stepmother, Mrs. Victoria Bamidele, that was thought to have run away until the Police caught up with her.
Now it is his biological father, simply identified as Mr. Oshodi, initially believed to be away on a journey that is now said to be on the run, according to reports in the media.
11-year-old Friday Oshodi was allegedly buried alive in Apamsede, near Lokoja, by his stepbrother, Goodness, for allegedly stealing N1,000 belonging to his stepmother who instructed her own son to punish him.
Good samaritans saved Friday and exhumed him from the spot he was buried alive by his brother.
In meting punishment to the 11-year-old, the 17-year-old took his stepbrother into the bush where he allegedly buried him alive.
The Police Public Relation Officer, Kogi Command, SP Williams Ovye-Aya, had told NAN that Oshodi travelled and that the police were waiting for him to return for his own side of the story.
When NAN visited Apamsede community on Saturday, it was revealed that the father of the victim had absconded and that when the incident happened the father of the victim was at home.
The district head of Apamsede, Garba Ahmed told NAN that on the day of the incident, the father of the 11-year-old boy, the stepmother and the stepson were summoned to the palace of the traditional ruler on what led to such act.
“When they came to the chief’s palace, Mr Oshodi, the father of the 11-year-old boy was present at the palace when both the stepson and stepmother gave reasons for their action,” the district Ahmed explained.
“The boy’s father probably ran away when we insisted on inviting the police to handle the matter.
“The stepmother and her son, Goodness, had confessed to committing the dastardly act.
“But the traditional council of our community has decided not to harbour such people in our land.
“Once the stepmother and her son finished facing the wrath of the law, we shall banish them from this land.
“But before we banish them, we will ensure that the family offer a sacrifice to cleanse the land,” he said.
NAN reports that the police team who brought the boy’s stepmother to their house in Apamsede on Saturday morning discovered that the shovel and cutlass allegedly used in burying the teenager were missing.
Although the house was under lock and key, the police team observed that there were some changes in the environment unlike what they saw on Friday during their visit.
“Somebody must have entered this your house. Yesterday, when we came here the house was locked and the window curtain inside wasn’t down as we can see now.
“Some of the things that we met outside here yesterday are no more here. Somebody must have come around here.”
The police who had to break the lock and key to gain entrance into the house when the woman claimed that she had no key to the house, alleged that most of the things inside the house had been taken away.
“Where’s the shovel and cutlass you said were in the house? This is because nothing is here. Somebody must have packed the valuables here,” one of the officers said.
● Additional report by NAN
