BY AGENCY REPORTER
A 21-year-old suspected drug addict, identified as Muhammed Yusuf, has allegedly beaten his septuagenarian father, Ibrahim Yusuf, to death.
The suspect was said to have been alone with the father when he allegedly committed the crime at St. Mary Primary School area of Lokoja on Wednesday night.
According to Bello Nana, a neighbour, the boy had been misbehaving since Wednesday morning.
Nana said that she urged the father to report him to the police and get him arrested to avoid problems.
She said that the suspect, a Senior Secondary School Certificate holder who refused to further his education despite efforts by the father, had taken to drugs.
Nana said that on the fateful day, she went to work around 4pm to close by 12 midnight but closed at 10pm and decided to go home. “When I came home, I knocked the gate and nobody opened it,” she claimed.
She opened the gate with her spare key and asked of the old man but the suspect said that the septuagenarian was not around.
Noting that the old man was not in the habit of going out from 6pm and would lock the door, she inquired further about him.
“He answered from baba’s room and knowing that baba doesn’t allow him to enter his room, I became suspicious of what he was doing there and I immediately called my fiance.
“We called baba’s phone number but it was switched off,” she said.
The woman and his fiance lodged a complaint to the police. On getting home, she said, “When we entered the room, baba was lying in a pool of blood still breathing. We rushed him to the hospital. This morning, we heard that baba was dead,” Nana narrated.
Confirming the incident, the Police Public Relations Officer, Kogi State Command, Williams Aya, said the suspect had been arrested.
“We got information yesterday (Wednesday), around 9pm, that the Divisional Police Officer of ‘A’ Division, Lokoja received a distress call that Muhammad Yusuf, 21-year-old of St. Mary Primary School, Lokoja, attacked and injured his father.
“The police moved to the scene where they met the victim, Yusuf Ibrahim, in a pool of his blood with serious injury on his head.
“He was rushed to the Specialist Hospital, Lokoja, for treatment and the suspect was arrested.
“But today, around 9:30 am, one of the victim’s sons came to the station and reported that their father had died while receiving treatment.
“So, the Police went there, took photographs and deposited the body at the mortuary for autopsy,” he said, adding that investigation into the matter had commenced.
