Hafsoh’s Murder: Prime Suspect,Abdulrahman Changes Narrative In Court, Says He Was Tortured By Police, DSS To Admit Killing Victim *** Shed tears as he recounts Hafsoh’s last moments, expresses regret 

By Omowumi Omotosho

A fresh twist emerged on Wednesday during the resumed hearing in the alleged murder case of 24-year-old Hafsoh Lawal, a graduate of Kwara State College of Education, as the prime suspect, Abdulrahman Bello, offered a new narrative contradicting earlier confessions.

Abdulrahman, who had previously confessed on video to strangling Hafsoh during sex, a confession recorded by the Department of State Services (DSS), now claims the confession was made under extreme torture by security operatives. In his latest testimony before Justice Hannah Ajayi at Courtroom 4 of the Kwara State High Court, Abdulrahman insisted that Hafsoh died of asthma attack.

Abdulrahman and his victim,Hafsoh 

Unlike previous sittings, Abdulrahman appeared visibly overwhelmed with emotion. He shed tears as he recounted what he described as Hafsoh’s last moment, claiming she had asthmatic attack while they were having sex.

Throughout the hearing, Abdulrahman looked pale and withdrawn, resting his right hand on his cheek while seated in the dock.

The victim’s father, Ibrahim Adefalu, was present in court as usual, and just like in previous sittings, was visibly shaken and emotional as Abdulrahman gave his testimony.

Abdulrahman and four other accused persons were escorted into the courtroom by heavily armed officers from the Nigeria Correctional Service. All five appeared before Justice Ajayi as proceedings continued in the high-profile case.

The prime suspect in his narration before the court stated that: “On 10th February 2025, a lady Hafsoh Adefalu by name, who was my girlfriend came to my house.

She had been making efforts to visit me for a long time but I didn’t have time. But on the said day, she made me to know that she was hungry and I went out to get her bread and Fanta but she told me that she was an Ulcer patient and that the Fanta will affect her.

“I told her that you never informed me that you have ulcer, what you told me was asthma. I had to go out to get her rice which we ate together. As lovers, as we were eating, we started romancing each other. After eating, we left the palour and entered into the room where we had sex. During sex, I discovered that she had started behaving strangely. Her behaviour was totally different from sexual pleasure. I quickly checked her bag to see if I will see her inhaler.

“I didn’t see her inhaler in the bag so I had to rush to a nearby pharmacy to see if I could get an inhaler for her. I met my landlord on the way and she asked me what the problem was because I was sweating and I told her I want to quickly get something at the Pharmacy. By the time I came back, I met her lifeless body.”

Speaking further, Abdulrahman said: “ I was afraid and confused. I was worried because she had once taken me to see her father as someone she wanted to marry. Her father refused because he said I was not educated. Because of the love between us, Hafsoh encouraged me to register for NABTEB so that once I gain admission, her father would approve of our relationship”

” Thinking of different kind of things, I started walking around, until I got to a liquor store. Then I bought an alcoholic drink. I walked over to a drainage system nearby, sat beside it and drank the alcohol. After that, I returned home. While going home, I concluded that there was no way I could remove Hafsoh’s corpse from my house without raising suspicion. Also, if her dad who said we could not marry, should hear about the incident, there is nothing he wouldn’t do.

“Something told me that I should dismember her body and dispose it at a dumpsite. I decided to follow my thinking. I finished dismembering the body around 11pm and started dumping the parts at dumpsite. When I finished disposing the body parts, I returned home and sat within the compound and cried till dawn.

He narrated the event that happened the following day of the incident saying: ” on the second day, as result of fear, I left my residence and went to our family house in Isale-koto, Ilorin, Kwara state. I was there till 14th of February, 2025 when the police came to arrest me. I was taken to the headquarters, on evening of 14th, February, 2025. One Police officer, Dahunsi Eniola, asked me to narrate how the incident happened and I explained. I was asked if I have been arrested before and I said “NO”.

“I was then returned to the cell. At the midnight, I was taken out from the cell. I was taken into a room, I was asked which hand do I used to write, I told them I used right hand. The hand was them tied to the chair I was asked to sit on. They began to beat me, after sometimes, the beating stopped. I was told the first beating is the tip of the iceberg, that if I don’t cooperate, I will be killed and they would say, I wanted to run, that’s why I was killed. After that, a writing paper was placed before me which was different from the one officer Dahunsi Eniola gave me earlier.

“I was told to rewrite my account of the incident. While writing, I noticed that some words were added and some subtracted . I told the investigating officers that that was not what I wrote in evening. In response, they descended on me and started beating me again so much that my eyeballs turned red. When the beating was much, I begged them to stop beating and promised that I will cooperate with them.

“I was asked to study what was in the statement, that we will do video recording. We did the video six times before they got their desired result. On 16th February, 2025, I was taken from the cell, upon getting out, I saw a big polythene bag filled with some items which I was told to open. I don’t know where they got the polythene bag from. I was arraigned before the court and was remanded at Oke-kura custodial centre. We were at Oke-kura, when the DSS came to take us to their office. At DSS office, five of us were taken but I was put in a separate cell. I don’t know where they put the rest. We spent a month and 3 days in DSS custody.

“The first day that I was brought out from the cell at the DSS, I was told that they have the mandates to investigate on two things, and I was told that I should cooperate with them and that order had come from above that they can kill me if I don’t cooperate. The first mandate was to unravel the people that I sell human parts to and I told them that I don’t know anything in that regard. I made it clear to them that since the beginning of the case I had vowed to God that I will not tell lies in this matter and that He (God) should forgive me.

“I was being beaten twice in a week. Then they put it to me that I am the one that killed Hafsoh, I told them I was not

the one that killed her and I love her dearly to the extent that I don’t know, if I could meet someone like her as a result of her care for my life.

“I told them she made me to write NABTEB exam, last year. I also told them, she made me to register for JAMB too. I told them a lot of good things that she had done for me which is very rare among the present generation of ladies, but I was not given a listening ears.

“I was asked if I poisoned the food I gave her. I said no. However, when the beating by the DSS people became unbearable, I had to admit that I poisoned her.

They now asked me the name of the poison, but I couldn’t mention any because I didn’t know any and I had never used any before. Then they said I strangled her. I told them Hafsoh had a fat body and I couldn’t even handle her if at all we want to fight. They then told me I am not ready to cooperate with them. I had to lied that I strangled her.

Concluding his testimony before the court, he said: “I said at the police station, at the magistrates and DSS office, that the people that were arrested with me did not know anything about the incident. I wouldn’t have cut her into pieces if they knew about the incident because they would have helped me to take out the body intact and successfully disposed it”.

While being cross-examined by the kwara state Director of Public Prosecution, Barrister Ayoola Akande, the prime suspect, Abdulrahman was presented with a photograph and was asked to identify the person in it. Abdulrahman acknowledged that the image was of the late Hafsoh, stating they had met sometime in 2024. However, he was unable to inform the court about the course she had been studying at the Kwara State College of Education before her death.

Barrister Ayoola further questioned Abdulrahman about whether he knew the deceased’s father. He replied in the affirmative but could not remember the specific date he visited their residence. He also confirmed that all the items recovered from his room , a cutlass, an axe, and a knife belonged to him.

Additionally, Abdulrahman admitted that the human body parts presented as evidence in court were the same ones previously described as being in a polythene bag.

When questioned about how he knew that Hafsoh Adefalu was dead, given that he has no medical training, Abdulrahman admitted that no one officially confirmed her death before he began dismembering her body.

Upon being asked about the location of Hafsoh’s head, he responded that he had discarded it along with other body parts.

“You claimed that you love a lady, and she had done so much in your life and you couldn’t move ahead to confirm if she was dead or not before you start pieceing her body ?”, Akande asked Abdulrahman,as the suspect said, he dismembered her parts because he was afraid of her father.

Following the conclusion of the cross-examination, Abdulrahman expressed remorse before the court, saying he deeply regretted the events that resulted in Hafsoh Adefalu’s death and the manner in which he dismembered her body.

The second defendant, an Arabic teacher named Abdulwasiu Ahmed stated that: “I don’t know anything about about Hafsoh’s case. On 17th February 2025, a man came to my house and informed me that police arrested him in our street and he said he needed a figure that can identify him as member of the community. I told him, I am not a committee member of the community, the people that came with him asked me to come out.

“I told them I cannot come out at midnight, I then told them I would call one of the community’s committee members. I called my neighbour, Taofeek Agunbiade, who is part of the community’s committee, it was him that said the men are truly police officers. I then opened my door, and they told me I’m under arrest. My home was searched and nothing incriminating was found. They requested for my phone, I gave them my two phones, my wife’s phone was also collected. They also requested for my car key. My wife’s phone was then returned. I was taken into the hilux, they brought and one of the officers drove my car.

“We went to one of my Islamic students’ residence who live in same community with me. The officers knocked at his door twice with no response. The door was later opened and his residence was searched without finding anything implicating. We were handcuffed and moved to SCID. At SCID, I was asked if i knew Abdulrahman Bello, I said he is one of my Arabic students.

“I was asked if I ķnew he killed someone, I said no. They asked if I heard of the killing, I said yes. I was asked if I know anything about the case, I said NO. I was asked how I heard, I told them that one of Abdulrahman’s younger siblings, Mohammed Bello called me on the 14th February 2025 around past five in the evening and told me that his elder brother was arrested. He said he was alleged of murder. I asked him if he was learning how to drive their father’s car when he killed someone, he said no. I then asked if he used bike to hit someone which resulted to that person’s death. I also asked if he fought with someone.

“I was asked the role of Abdulrahman as my Arabic student. I told them he do play bandir ( a drum played during Islamic ceremony) for me. I was locked up and the second day, I met myself in the court.

“After court, we were taken to Oke-kura Correctional Centre. Three weeks later, we were to taken to DSS office and I told them the samething I said in court today “.

When asked by Barrister Akande about what Abdulrahman said when they were arraigned before the magistrate Court in Ilorin. The second defendant stated that: “At the magistrates Court, Abdulrahman told the court that we knew nothing about the case.”

He also declared that he was not beaten by any officer before his statement was taken.

The third defendant, a network marketer with Neolife, Suleiman Muyindeen, in his testimony before the court declared that: ” I am not aware of the crime, it is an implications. On 17th February 2025, around 3am, I heard a knock on my door. I was frightened. I thought those knocking were armed robbers. I called one of the community committee members to raise alarm that we were about to be robbed, but the call was not picked. The knocking stopped when I didn’t open the door. I then slept.

“Around after 5 in the morning, I heard a burst and our door opened, I woke up and quickly open my door and I was pushed into the house. Not quite long, the second defendant was brought in and the officers began search. After the search without anything implicating thing found, my two phones were taken. I was handcuffed with our Alfa (the second defendant). We were moved to the police headquarters. But before we left, one the office said, ” this guy no get anything for house, make e dey go”.

“In the morning at police headquarters, I was asked if I knew Abdulrahman Bello, I made them know that we are both Islamic students. After that I was asked if I knew he killed someone, I said I didnt know. I was then asked to write statement. After the statement, we were locked in the cell and the following day, we were charged to court. From court, we were remanded at Oke-kura.”

When asked if he knew Hafsoh Lawal, he said: ” No” He further stated that he was not beaten before his statement was taken. He also affirmed that AbdulRahman at the magistrate Court, said he and others knew nothing about the case.

The 4th defendant, a phone repairer and Arabic teacher, Mohammed Jamiu while being cross-examined told the court that : “I know nothing about the incident. I don’t know the deceased, I have never heard her name. On 17th February, 2025, I went to buy food. The keke ( Tricycle) I was riding in stopped at a fuel station. A police van came from nowhere and pronto was arrested. After the arrest, I was taken to Mogaji Elemere’s residence in Moro local government, where the 5th defendant was arrested and we were moved to the police headquarters.

“At the headquarters, I was asked of what Abdulrahman gave me. I said nothing and he also told the police that he gave me nothing. We were asked to write statement. We were then charged to court and from the Magistrate we were moved to Oke-kura. From Oke-kura we were moved to DSS office.”

The fifth defendant, Abdulrahman Jamiu in his narrative told the court that: “On the 17th of February 2025, I was in Elemere Town in Moro local government, attending Firdaus prayers of my late father. I was called that someone was looking for me. I went out to see who it was. I met Inspector Abdulazeez and I was arrested. Our residence was searched by the officers, but nothing incriminating was found. When I went out, I met Abdulrahman Bello and Usman Jamiu in the police vehicle. We were taken to police headquarters in Ilorin. At the headquarters, the police asked us of the body part that Abdulrahman gave us and we declared that we were not given anything.

He stated further that “After this, we wrote statement before Inspector Abdulazeez and we were taken to a cell. The following morning, around 11am, we were taken to a senior police officer for interrogation and we said we did not know anything about the incident. Abdulrahman Bello was asked also, he said we were not involved in the incident. We were then returned to the cell. Fifteen minutes later, we were taken to a magistrate court in Ilorin.

“At the magistrate Court, Abdulrahman Bello raised his hands and said we knew nothing about the incident. We were then moved to Oke-kura and spent 21 days there. After, were taken to DSS office. We spent 33 days at the DSS office. At the DSS office, we were asked about the incident and I told them what I wrote in my statement at the police headquarters.”

During cross-examination, the fifth defendant told the court that AbdulRahman affirmed before the magistrate court that non of the four persons arraigned with Abdulrahman were involved. He also affirmed that gnon of them were beaten nor forced to make statement.

The court therefore adjourned the case till July 2, 2025 for adoption of address from the defense counsels.

As the case draws towards conclusion, 17 witnesses have so far testified, as 32 exhibits were presented before the court.