OGUN KILLING: Parents tasked on family, moral values after court remanded 4 teenagers for “cutting off head” of girlfriend

By KEMI KASUMU

It is no longer news that an Abeokuta Magistrates’ Court on Thursday remanded four teenagers in prison for the alleged murder by cutting off the head of 20-year-old Sofiat Okeowo, who was earlier reported as Rafiat.

What is news now is the developing story that is coming out of the sad event.

Parents have been blamed for many of the rising ritual killings engaged in by young ones as those hurling the blames say, children of 16, 17, 20 going into crime as huge as beheading head of fellow human being to make money is sign of a completely collapsed family and value system.

An Islamic cleric confirmed that all the boys that killed the girl bear Muslim names and that the place the head burning was done was in their Arabic centre probably because it was not the first time such was happening as witnessed by them.

To this end, he warned that parents should watch well before handing their children to any Arabic centre cleric because, according to him, many of the clerics teaching children in Arabic centre (Ile Kewu) are not different from occultists and pastors who use demons as source of magical power.

“I have watched the video of teenagers, who murdered Sofiat and what is important in my observation is for the parents to return to care for their children. Out of the care that is very important, much as it is important to send children to moderasat, is to search for sincere cleric that will be handed children to be taught Arabic and Qur’anic education in order not to be misled from the way of Islam.

“This is because there are Alfas, who will teach your children evils or things not found in Islam. All Alfas that burn charms inside local pot on fire have no difference from harbalists and pastors dealing in occultism. So, if you put your children in their care, you have destroyed their lives.

“These teenagers that killed Sofiat are students of an Arabic centre. They are Muslim children. The place they went to burn the beheaded girl’s head is Arabic centre (Ile Kewu) because, the place must have been used for such things before.

“For Allah’s sake all these are not approved by Islam. Our religion has come to wage war against idols and occultism. It comes to ask us to worship only one God and ask only him for our needs. Aside standing up in prayers to Allah and asking him for our needs, we are forbidden to seek power from the devil,” he warned.

On Journalists’ Hangout on Sunday, it was agreed that parents have got much role to play in restoring sanity in the family and moral system of children as, according to discussants who included Babajide Lolade Otitoju, the rate at which young people especially in South West Nigeria engage in ritual related criminalities is alarming.

The Ogun State Police Command, on Thursday, charged Balogun Mustakeem, 20, Majekodunmi Soliudeen, 18, Abdulgafar Lukman, 19, and Waris Oladeinde, 18, on a two-count charge of conspiracy and murder.

Magistrate I. O Abudu, who did not take the plea of the accused, ordered that they be remanded in prison.

Abudu ordered that they should be remanded in Oba Correctional Service, pending legal advice from Ogun State Director of Public Prosecution (DPP).

She, however, adjourned the case until March 14 for mention.

The Prosecutor, Inspevtor Lawrence Balogun, told the court that the accused committed the offence on January 28 at Kugba area in Abeokuta.

Balogun alleged that the accused conspired among themselves and murdered one Sofiat Okeowo who was a girlfriend to one of the accused, Soliudeen.

He said the accused killed her by cutting off her head with a cutlass.

According to the prosecutor, the accused murdered Sofiat with the plan to use her for a money ritual.

The prosecutor said that the offence contravened sections 324, 316 of the Criminal Code Laws of Ogun 2006.