A suspected serial killer, Philip Ogunnaike, recently apprehended in Ogun State, has made a startling request, urging that he and his accomplices be sentenced to death.
In a video shared by the Ogun State Police Public Relations Officer, Omolola Odutola, via her X page, Ogunnaike made this plea during an interrogation.
The suspect revealed that he was drawn into a life of crime by an individual named Danjuma, along with others, who allegedly coerced him into joining the notorious Eiye confraternity.
Ogunnaike urged the police to apprehend Danjuma and the other alleged accomplices, emphasizing that his sole request is to receive the death sentence when brought before the court.
“I don’t want anything other than the police to arrest Danjuma and others who initiated me into the Eiye cult. If we get to court, they should not bother hearing our case, they should just go and kill us.
“But before they kill us, they should give me food so that I can eat before they kill me because those that I killed may just have finished eating before I killed them,” he said in Yoruba (now translated).
The PUNCH reported on Friday that 29-year-old Philip Ogunnaike was arrested on suspicion of murdering at least three young women, including an 18-year-old, in separate incidents across Ogun State.
The police revealed that Ogunnaike’s modus operandi involved luring his victims into a forest, where he would restrain and strangle them before abandoning their bodies and stealing their phones.
Further investigations uncovered that Ogunnaike had previously escaped from the Ibara Correctional Centre nearly two years ago while being transported to the Magistrate Court in Isabo for an ongoing armed robbery case.
During the announcement of his arrest, the police named his victims: 18-year-old Akinsanya Habibat, 22-year-old Abigail Dina, and 23-year-old Mary Ogunyemi.
Ogunnaike confessed to the murders, guiding the police’s anti-kidnapping unit to various locations where he had left the bodies. He and an accomplice, who remains at large, were accused of luring his neighbor’s 23-year-old daughter, Ogunyemi, into a forest, where they allegedly tied her up, strangled her and abandoned her body after stealing her phone.
The statement added, “On July 3, 2024, at approximately 10 a.m., the late Mary Ogunyemi, a 23-year-old lady, was sent by her mother, Mrs. Ogunyemi Esther, to buy fruits at Adatan from Asero Estate. She was accompanied by the suspect, Philip.
“Philip, a male suspect, was staying with someone in the same compound as the victim. He lured her to a nearby bush in Asero Estate and called in another accomplice to assist him in the kidnapping.
“The victim was bound with rope and robbed of an iPhone S. Philip Ogunnaike and his accomplice jointly strangled her to death. The two criminals later contacted the victim’s mother by phone and demanded a ransom of seventeen thousand naira.
“The duo abandoned the corpse of the victim inside the bush and fled to Badagry, Lagos State, to sell off the stolen iPhone S at the rate of N8,000.”
According to the command, Ogunnaike was held accountable for the murder of his employer’s 18-year-old daughter, Akinsanya, which occurred at Mile 6 in Abeokuta on August 30, 2024, around 5 p.m.
The suspect reportedly abducted the young woman, sexually assaulted her, and then strangled her with a rope on her father’s farm.
After the killing, Ogunnaike contacted the victim’s parents to demand a ransom before fleeing the scene.
The command noted, “The father received a phone call on his daughter Habibat Akinsanya’s phone, informing him that she, aged 18, had been kidnapped and that he needed to pay a ransom of N1m for her release.
“The victim’s father subsequently paid N30,000 to the Moniepoint account number given by the kidnapper. Later, her body was discovered on her father’s farmland in Obasa village, Mile 6, Abeokuta, Ogun State, along with her PoS machine found beside her.
“The suspect admitted that the victim’s father employed him and was working on the farm when he saw the victim passing by. He lured her to the farm and then tied her legs with a rope.”
Meanwhile, the state Police Commissioner, Abiodun Alamutu, announced that a manhunt is underway to apprehend Ogunnaike’s remaining accomplices.
