By Rotimi Ojomoyela Ado-Ekiti
A 73-year-old pensioner, Mrs. Adetutu Ajayi, was on Tuesday hacked to death at her residence in Ado Ekiti by gunmen, which some residents suspected to be ritualists, popularly known as Yahoo boys. Mrs. Ajayi, daughter of the former Accountant-General of the Old Western Region, Mr. Samuel Sotoowa, was killed at her residence on number 10, Moferere, Ajilosun area of Ado Ekiti. Th e mother of fi ve , who many in the neighbourhood described as an easy going person, lived alone in the fl at with a tenant occupying the ‘boys quarters’ built at the back of her house, was a retiree of the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, where she worked for 35 years before retirement.
Speaking on the gruesome murder, the deceased’s daughter, Mrs. Titilayo Ajayi, said she was called from Akure, capital of Ondo state, around 11pm by church members that her mother sustained injuries, which she said made her to rush down to assess the situation. “When I got here, I saw my mother in the pool of blood. Her blood had been drained and taken away because a bucket Mama left in the store was taken away which we believed were used to drain blood and her fi ngers were cut off which made us to suspect that it was done by ritualists.
“We saw the record Mama left on calendar because anytime she woke up around 5am, she would take her bathe and marked the calendar and we saw the calendar marked on that day which suggested that she was killed after 5am.” She said her body had been deposited at the morgue of the Ekiti State University Teaching Hospital, Ado Ekiti. Th e 82-year-old husband of the deceased, Mr. Clement Ajayi, who lived at Irun Ekiti, described the incident as “sad, pathetic and surprising,” saying it confi rmed that Nigerians were no longer safe. “I could not imagine myself seeing my wife being massacred like that, over what. In fact, her head, eyes, hands, laps and neck were butchered, you could hardly identify her. It was a gruesome murder and justice must be done in this matter,” he said.
