Son murders Senior Advocate of Nigeria over prayer dispute

A 300 level student of Redeemer University owned by the Redeemed Christian Church of God, RCCG, Tolani Ajayi has been arrested by the Ogun State Police Command for allegedly killing his biological father Barrister Charles Ajayi, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, SAN.
The offence of the slain 60-year-old legal luminary, according to the suspect, was that the late legal practitioner slapped him after failing to respond to a prayer point during a session in their house.
The Ogun State Police Command Public Relations Officer, Muyiwa Adejobi, who confirmed the incident yesterday, explained that the suspect last Tuesday stabbed his father to death and later removed his throat with a cutlass. The boy thereafter dropped his father’s body at a bush not far from the church premises.
Adejobi, a Deputy Superintendent of Police, explained that some members of the community who suspected Tolani’s movement, a 21-year-old student of Department of History and International Relations in the university, called the attention of the police.
He explained that the Divisional Police Officer, DPO, in Redemption Camp, SP Olaiya Martins, later led a team of police detectives and members of the community to the scene and traced the ground mark of the dragged box before the body was recovered.
“The Ogun State Police Command has again uncovered the mystery behind the killing of a legal luminary who was slaughtered by his biological son in the Redemption Camp along Lagos/Ibadan Expressway on Tuesday 3rd July at 0400hrs.
“The shattered body of Barrister Charles Ajayi, 60, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, was seen and recovered in a nearby bush at Canaan land Street in the RCCG Camp in a box, after he had been killed by his son.
“The suspect who is a biological son to the slain lawyer, Tolani Ajayi, 21-year-old and a 300 level student of the Department of History and International Relations of the Redeemer University, RCCG Camp, Ogun State was arrested same date in his father’s residence, the scene of the incident at about 1730hrs after the discovery of the corpse and police preliminary findings.
“The DPO Redemption Camp, SP Olaiya Martins, had led a team of detectives and some members of the community who noticed the strange attitude of the suspect while dumping a box, to the point where the body of the SAN was dumped and thereafter traced the ground marks of the dragged box from where the suspect dumped the dad’s corpse to the house of the Senior Advocate of Nigeria, where they met the suspect in a relaxed mood in the house,” the PPRO said.
According to the [olice spokesperson, the suspect earlier lied that his dad had gone on evangelism before he eventually confessed to the crime when he was taken to the Redemption Camp Divisional Headquarters.
“He stated further that the problem arose when his late father confronted him for not responding to all the prayer points he (the deceased) was calling and the late father slapped him.
“He said he went mad and went straight to the kitchen to pick up a knife to stab him and later a cutlass to cut his throat and killed him,” he further said.
The police however explained that exhibits including the knife and cutlass used in killing his father had been recovered while the corpse of the late SAN was deposited at a morgue in Sagamu.
The PPRO further told journalists that the State Commissioner of Police, Ikemefuna Okoye, had sent a team of detectives led by the officer in charge of Homicide Section of the Department of Criminal Investigation, Eleweran, Abeokuta to assess the situation and take over the matter for further investigation and necessary action.
“The commissioner therefore sympathises with the family of the deceased SAN, particularly his wife, who is also a legal practitioner and children to take solace in the Lord; and other members of the community in RCCG, that such incident will not occur again as the command will improve on the synergy between the police and the Internal Security Operatives of the RCCG,” he said.