The body of the chairman of Youth for Christ in Nigeria, an eminent academic and elder statesman of the African nation, has been found murdered.
Professor Albert Ilemobade disappeared last week and was thought to have been kidnapped by unknown gunmen.
Nigeria media reported that his former driver and security guard, Olayemi Bamitale and Daniel Ita, had confessed to the murder. The professor's body was found in a store in his home in Azure after they were arrested when they attempted to sell his red Toyota RAV4.
Staff at the Youth for Christ offices in the country, along with his family and many friends and colleagues, were in a state of shock and after the body of Professor Ilemobade, former Vice-Chancellor of the Federal University of Technology, was discovered.
Gruesome details of the murder appeared online today after those arrested were put forward by police at a press conference and apparently confessed all to journalists.
Bamitale, who had been sacked by Ilemobade months before after a previous attempt to steal the car, said he was the one who strangled Professor Ilemobade, helped by Ita, in another attempt make off with the car and sell it for cash.
Bamitale, aged 36, went on to state that the wages of sin are death and he was ready to die, as he was guilty of the death of the Ilemobade.
He said: "When he [Ita] called me, I said I had no money but he said I should come that he would pay for my transport when I got to Akure. He came to meet me at Obanla junction and gave me N1,000 to pay for my transport. He said I should meet him at Papa's house at Ijapo by 9pm because I had worked there before as a driver.
"When I got there, he told me that he had gone to his herbalist that said if he wanted to steal the car, they should kill the man. He told me that the herbalist said he should bring the sand of the house so that there would not be any problem after that. I asked him that the man had slept, how would he come out?
"He said he would say there is a sparking of electricity in the house and once he comes out, we will strangulate him. True to his word, he went to the window of the man and told him that there was electricity sparking in the security post. The man came out through the kitchen door and we killed him. He now suggested that we should take him to car park. We now dragged him there so that we could enter the house.
"We now went inside his room and saw the key to the car; we took it with two bags, N7,000, two handsets, one laptop computer and one i-Pad. We now left the house and he now locked the gate from outside. When we wanted to leave the estate, we saw the security and when they saw him, they asked us to leave."
They decided to go to Lagos to sell the car, and were soon arrested by police.
Adeseni Ilemobade, the victim's son, said the family demanded justice.
