The mother of two who was declared missing by her family recently has been found dead, mutilated and buried.
Mercy Henry, a 35-year-old woman who became unreachable after telling family members she was going to Ijegun, Lagos, was discovered buried in different sacks behind a building belonging to the prime suspect, Mr. Mayowa Timothy Bamidele.
MSN had reported that the suspect was picked up by the police after a friend of the deceased volunteered information that he paid some money into an account provided by the deceased but which was later found to belong to the suspect.
Mayowa Bamidele denied having anything to do with the death of the woman. He maintained that position for days. He told the police he last saw her four years ago.
The deceased’s grieving father, Pa Henry Ekienabor, 70, choking on emotion, said: “It’s rather unfortunate that my daughter was killed, mutilated and buried at the back of Mayowa’s house. She was killed on the same December 16th, 2021 that she left home.
“Police called my son on to tell us the development. I was hoping and praying that maybe they had been able to track and locate where her captors kept her. The police told us that she was murdered in cold blood, mutilated and then buried. After mutilating her corpse, she was then packed into five sacks and buried at the back of Mayowa’s house. Police have gone to the scene to exhume her remains.
“The breakthrough in the case was said to have started after the police arrested four people alongside Mayowa. During interrogation, the detectives appealed to the four suspects that anyone who gave them useful information wouldn’t be punished. One of the four men raised his hand and then volunteered information to the police. Police went there, searched the house and zeroed in on the spot where Mercy was buried.
“Police recovered her handbag, Automated Teller Machine (ATM) card and her phone. These items were hidden in one of the uncompleted houses inside the blocks there. Till tomorrow, Mayowa is still denying knowing anything about the matter, but when the police brought him out of the cell after interrogating the other four suspects; he saw them and almost collapsed. Yes, he knows them.
“They are working together, so he couldn’t deny it.” Pa Ekienabor said.
The elderly man expressed the opinion that Mayowa probably killed Mercy for money ritual purposes.
“All the men of God, women of God, pastors, Bishops, I went to, all assured me Mercy was being kept somewhere, that we should pray, that she would come out, we didn’t know that she had been killed and buried for long. Yes, she was killed three minutes after her friend, Ayo, transferred N30, 000 into Mayowa’s First Bank Account.”
Mercy on December, 16, told her family that she was heading to Ijegun, a suburb of the Ikotun area of Lagos State. She did not name the person she was going to visit.
“On December 16th I got a call from my son that Mercy didn’t return home to sleep. She had told everyone she was going to Ijegun, but she didn’t mention the name of the person she was going to see. That same night, her siblings started calling all her friends, asking if they had heard or seen Mercy. One of her friends residing at Port Harcourt, named Ayo, said that she spoke with Mercy at noontime. She said that Mercy called, asking for a loan of N30, 000, that she needed it for treatment at a trado-medical home, that she was short of blood and getting leaner. Ayo told us that she paid the money into a First Bank account bearing the name, ‘Mayowa Timothy Bamidele,’ given to her by Mercy. The money landed in the account at 1:59 pm and at 2:02 pm, Mercy’s phone number stopped going. Since then, we’ve not been able to reach her.”
The deceased’s family went to Gowon Police Station to make a formal complaint, declaring Mercy missing. Using the information supplied by Ayo, the police went to First Bank and with the assistance of the Bank, Mayowa, the account holder that received the N30, 000, was arrested. He, however, denied seeing Mercy.
Pa Ekienabor said: “He claimed to have seen Mercy four years ago when she came to his traditional birth centre to deliver a baby girl. But his phone history and chats showed that he and Mercy spoke on December 15th about 9 pm. Now, if you call her phone it would be switched off, but at night it would ring twice or thrice, then it would be switched off. It shows that someone used to charge it.”
It was learnt that the children of Mercy have been asking for her, but relatives told them their mom would soon be home, unaware she had been killed and buried.
