On Wednesday, September 4, a Nigerian X user, @letter_to_jack, used the platform to advocate for justice for Idowu Christiannah, a young lady who was abducted and killed by an acquaintance, Adeleye Ayomide, causing the hashtag #JusticeforChristiannah to go viral. Here’s a detailed report on the incident:
The abduction of Christiannah
On August 19, 2024, Christiannah Idowu was declared missing after her abductors contacted her parents through her own WhatsApp number.
The first contact with the parents was established around 8:49 pm, after which they sent photos of the victim in captivity to them using the WhatsApp ‘view once’ feature. The abductors requested a ransom fee of ₦1,500,000, and the sum of ₦350,000 was immediately raised and transferred to a betting account through a bank deposit channel, per the abductor’s request. After receiving the money, on the 22nd of August, the abductor requested that the bank statement of the sender be forwarded to his email. The family complied, and the abductor stopped communicating with the parents.
Still, on the 22nd of August, some amount was paid to the GTB account belonging to Christiannah, and the amount was withdrawn into the Wema bank account belonging to the main suspect. Intelligence operatives began investigations on the 26th, to unravel details of the account number.
Tracking down Adeleye
By the 29th, intelligence operatives had confirmation from the bank that the BVN linked to the masked betting account belonged to Adeleye Ayomide, who also operates the Wema Bank account Christiannah’s money was transferred to. Further investigations revealed that Adeleye withdrew the sum of ₦100,000 from the betting account before agents got the betting company to lock the account.
Armed with this information, operatives began an investigation into the suspect, whom they observed to have a relationship with Christiannah Idowu, judging from their interactions on social media.
The operatives tracked down his cell phone activities and text messages, leading them to his parents’ house, somewhere in Ikorodu, Lagos. Nigerian army personnel swooped in on the suspect to conduct an arrest.
The evidence
After the arrest, damning evidence was seen with the suspect, including the victim’s blue ITEL A56. Also, on his phone were details of the money moved and confirmation of his ownership of the betting account, which was registered to his phone number. They found an interaction between his email address and the email address that interacted with the family of the deceased.
After reviewing the evidence, the suspect was taken into custody to enable the operatives to conduct further investigations. On August 3, the suspect reportedly confessed to Christiannah’s father and the soldiers that he killed the girl and buried her in his house.
Previous cases
There is a new story awaiting further confirmation. According to sources, Adeleye’s family were aware he had murdered before, causing his cousins to expose him secretly to security personnels a few days ago, after his parents refused to cooperate.
His family suggested that his ex-girlfriend was abducted in 2018, killed and buried the same way. In 2020, his own blood sister was abducted, killed and buried the same way. Extended family members have suspected him for years until now.
At the time of reporting, Adeleye is 23 years old, which means his first alleged murder was at 17, and his second at 19.
Reactions
The report of Christainnah’s abduction and murder has sparked an outrage across social media with people calling for justice to the tune of death for Adeleye, as well as a call to action to protect women from gender-based violence.
This is a developing story.
