Like every family that had prayerfully surmounted the harsh and suffocating economic downturn compounded by the COVID-19 pandemic which ravaged the globe, the Anifowose family of Ikunrin-Ekiti in Ekiti State, South West Nigeria, had looked up to some relief and a measure of merrymaking at the end of the year.
Oblivious that death was lurking around the corner, they were cementing arrangements for the yuletide when the unexpected happened nine days to Christmas.
A few days earlier, their 31-year-old daughter, Toyin Anifowose had exuded radiance, love and an uncommon joy as she hosted her new lover whom she only met and got hooked on a social media platform, Facebook. He had visited her at Ikurin-Ekiti and she wanted to give him her best that would remain evergreen in his memory.
Unfortunately, Toyin did not have an inkling that her lover from the cyber space for whom she was drenched in affection was a beast from the pit of hell; a harbinger of death who had come to consume her. On Wednesday, December 16, he executed his evil mission and inaudibly snuffed life out of her.
Not satisfied after murdering her, he reportedly sneaked into her hair dressing saloon where she plied her trade as a stylist and packed all her valuable items, before disappearing.
Curiously, the identity and whereabouts of Toyin’s alleged killer –her lover turned Satan’s agent, is yet to be unraveled, according to reliably sources, a situation that may constitute a major challenge in the course of police investigations of the crime.
Homicide detectives at the Criminal Investigation Department (SCID) of the Ekiti State police command are, however, puzzling over the circumstances surrounding her death, following the discovery of her lifeless body in her room and a report made to the police by one of her brothers, Yinka Ajayi, at about 4.50pm on the same day.
But items said to have been recovered by the police on a visit to the scene of crime which included four injection syringes found besides the late Toyin’s bed, might give a clue to how she was murdered in cold blood, and perhaps, her assailant.
After recovering the items, the police evacuated Toyin’s corpse to the State Specialist Hospital, Ikole Ekiti, where it was deposited at the morgue for autopsy. How soon the police will unmask the man who allegedly committed the heinous crime and bring him to justice remains to be seen.
Contacted on the incident, spokesperson for the Ekiti State police command, Abutu Sunday, an Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP), said he was attending a workshop for Police Public Relations Officers in Enugu, and would avail our reporter of an update after getting a detailed brief.
