A friend in need, they say, is a friend indeed! Call it euthanasia (mercy killing) if you like, but the story you are about to read definitely looks a lot like a case of mental instability. Joseph Akindele, a middle aged man, has confessed to the killing his friend, Mufutau, to relieve him of the persistent pain and agony he was going through due to an undisclosed ailment, affirming that his friend is “now happy in death.”
The suspect had been arrested with a bag containing the skull and other remains of the deceased by a team of patrol officers in the Badagry area of Lagos State. In his written statement to the police, he said, “I am a tout. I live under the Gbaji/Iyafin bridge at Badagry with Muftau. I don’t have a means of livelihood and that’s why I live under the bridge. I work as agbero (tout) at motor parks; there, I get money to feed. Muftau has been living under the bridge but he was always sick and there was no money to go to hospital.”
He continues, “He was suffering too much because his sickness will not go. We didn’t have money for treatment, so after watching him in that pathetic state, I decided to put a stop to it by killing him with a sharp cutlass, so he can rest from the pains he was going through,” he added.
Meanwhile, the suspect has been transferred to the Homicide department at Panti, Yaba for further investigation to ascertain if he is in a good frame of mind, a ritualist or/and a cold-blooded murderer.