How hairdresser dumped son’s body in canal, by witness

AN Ikeja High Court last week heard how an hairdresser, Funmilayo Odunlade, dumped the body of her 13-year-old son, Tunde Sunmola, in a canal in Mowe, Ogun State.

A witness, Sergeant Adeola Lawal, told Justice Sedotan  Ogunsanya that Odunlade committed the act on August 2, 2014, around 6am.

Odunlade, 36, is facing a “charge of misconduct relating to bodies”, contrary to Section 163 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State 2011.

 Led in evidence by the prosecutor, Mr Adebayo Haroun, Sergeant Lawal, said the case was transferred to her department at the State Criminal Investigation Department (SCID) Panti, Yaba on August 7, 2014 around 5pm.

Lawal, who was the Investigating Police Officer (IPO), said: “The complainant was Mrs. Wuraola Sunmola, the former mother-in-law to the defendant and we summoned the defendant who volunteered to give a written statement. The defendant said the deceased had called her that he was being beaten and maltreated by his father, her ex-husband, in Ijebu-Ode, Ogun State and as such asked his mother to come and bring him to Lagos for holiday.

“She brought Tunde to Lagos and took him to her sister’s house, one Yemi Odunlade at Mowe, Lagos to spend his holiday.”

The police officer said the late Tunde contracted an undisclosed ailment while in his aunt’s home.

She said: “Tunde complained of leg pains and his mother went to Ijebu-ode to see her former mother-in-law for financial assistance in treating him. Her mother-in-law gave her N3,000 cash, drugs and some foodstuff for the deceased and she returned to Lagos, she said”.

Lawal told the court that few days after the trip, Odunlade received news from her sister that her son had died.

The witness said: “Immediately she heard the news, she made a trip to Ijebu-Ode to inform the complainant about the death of Tunde. Her mother-in-law upon receiving the news got a bus and three men to go to Lagos with the defendant to bring Tunde’s body to Lagos”.

The trip, Lawal said was aborted on the way by the driver and the three men because of traffic.

She said the driver and the men returned to Ijebu-Ode, leaving behind the defendant, who headed back to Mowe on her own.

The witness said when the defendant got to her sister’s home, she and her sister hired a motorcyclist to convey the body from the house.