Oshodi, the father of the 11-year-old boy allegedly buried alive by his stepbrother in Apamsede, Kogi, is said to be on the run.
It was gathered that the shovel and the cutlass used to perpetrate the dastardly act by the stepbrother were also missing.
Passers-by rescued the 11-year-old on Wednesday after his stepbrother had buried him in a bush in the Silo community in Zango Daji, the Adavi Local Government Area of the state.
The 11-year-old boy allegedly stole N1,000 belonging to his stepmother, who instructed her son to punish him.
The state police spokesperson, SP Williams Ovye-Aya, had told journalists that Mr Oshodi travelled and that the police were waiting for him to return for his side of the story.
When correspondents visited the Apamsede community on Saturday, it was revealed that the victim’s father had absconded and that when the incident happened, he was at home.
The district head of Apamsede, Garba Ahmed, said that on the day of the incident, the father of the 11-year-old boy, the stepmother and the stepson were summoned to the palace of the traditional ruler on what led to such an act.
“When they came to the chief’s palace, Mr Oshodi, the father of the 11-year-old boy, was present at the palace when both the stepson and stepmother gave reasons for their action.
“The boy’s father probably ran away when we insisted on inviting the police to handle the matter,” Mr Ahmed explained.
He said the suspects’ family would be made to offer sacrifices to cleanse the land, after which they would be banished.
“Once the stepmother and her son finished facing the wrath of the law, we shall banish them from this land.
“But before we banish them, we will ensure that the family offer a sacrifice to cleanse the land,” he said.
The police team who brought the boy’s stepmother to their house in Apamsede on Saturday morning discovered that the shovel and cutlass allegedly used in burying the teenager were missing.
Although the house was under lock and key, the police team observed some changes in the environment, unlike what they saw on Friday during their visit.
“Somebody must have entered this your house. Yesterday, when we came here, the house was locked, and the window curtain inside wasn’t down, as we can see now.
“Some of the things that we met outside here yesterday are no more here. Somebody must have come around here,” the police said.
The police, who had to break the lock and key to gain entrance into the house when the woman claimed she had no key, alleged that most things inside the house had been taken away.
“Where’s the shovel and cutlass you said were in the house? This is because nothing is here. Somebody must have packed the valuables here,” one of the officers said.
NAN