While the family of slain Hector Jobarteh, the former winner of Gulder Ultimate Search is still going through agony of losing a loved one; the man behind his murder has said he only got N7,000 for the job. The 49-year-old suspect, Ismaila Adeyemi, who is in police custody with five other accomplices, said they originally set out to rob Jobarteh, not to kill him.
According to him, he only took the victim’s mobile phone and sold it at N7000, through his brother, Usman Adeyemi, who has also been arrested. The suspect said he gave his brother N2000 out of the money while he took N5000.
On September 3, 2017, Jobarteh, 38, was shot dead after the assailants trailed him to his house on Olufowora Close, New Oko-Oba, Agege, from the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Ikeja. It was gathered that the deceased had gone to pick his younger brother at the airport. Four other suspects, apart from Ismaila and Usman, are also in police custody in connection to the incident.
According police the suspects include an Uber driver, who took the gang to the victim’s house, and the buyers of the stolen phone. The Lagos State Police Command headquarters in Ikeja, paraded Ismaila on Monday, October 1. Narrating the incident to journalists, the suspect identified some of his gang members who took part in the robbery as Nonso and KK.
The suspect, Ismaila Adeyemi
He said a lady, who is still at large, led them to the deceased’s residence. He said, “I knew KK through Nonso, whom I worked with in a filling station in Apapa some years back. I met Nonso about five months ago and I gave him the address of where I live in Sango, Ogun State. KK just came back from abroad that time.
“I did not know who the man was before the operation. On that day, we parked at a filling station around his house and a lady came to meet KK. After a while, he received a call from the lady and we saw the man (Jobarteh) drove into the close.
“We followed him, but did not know where he entered. KK approached a woman and lied to her that the man’s car hit his and he sped off. He begged her to direct us to where the man entered and she did. When we got into the building, we saw the car and met another lady on the premises. “KK asked the lady to lead us to the man’s apartment, but she declined. It was when he pointed a gun at the woman that she complied and took KK upstairs. He called us to come upstairs, but by the time we got to a living room upstairs, he had shot the man’s father in the hand.
He added that the gunshot prompted Jobarteh to come out from a room to the living room, where KK immediately shot him dead. “I did not shoot at all, although I was holding a gun too. I quarrelled with KK for shooting them, because our plan was just to rob. He threatened to shoot me and I kept quiet. It was a pair of shoes and flowers that were in the bag we collected from him. We didn’t find money there.
“I took away only his white handset while KK went with the bag. I gave the phone to my brother, Usman, to help me sell it. He said he sold it for N7,000. I collected N5,000 and gave him N2,000.”
But the Lagos Police Commissioner, Edgar Imohimi, insisted that Ismaila shot the GUS winner.