Father Of Slain FUNAAB Student Seeks Justice One Year Later

…Police Insist Suspect Still In Custody

The father of Christiana Idowu, a 300-level student of the Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta (FUNAAB), has appealed for justice one year after her brutal murder.

The case against her alleged killer, 23-year-old Ayomide Adeleye, appears stalled.

Christiana was reportedly abducted in August 2024 while travelling from her home in Itaoluwo, Ikorodu, to the University of Lagos, Yaba, where she was observing her industrial training. Her disappearance sparked reactions, until police investigations traced her to Adeleye, a philosophy student of Olabisi Onabanjo University.

The Lagos State Police Command confirmed that Adeleye, who was handed over by the Nigerian Army, confessed to killing her after luring Christiana to his residence under the pretext of helping her fix her phone.

“I killed her because I had financial problems,” he had reportedly said in his confession.

He further recounted how he strangled the young undergraduate and extorted N360,000 from her mother by pretending she was still alive.

His arrest was facilitated by investigators who tracked transactions on his SportyBet account, where he had uploaded his National Identification Number.

But one year later, her grieving father, Mr. Idowu Oluwafemi, says he has been left in the dark about the status of the case.

In a video seen by THE WHISTLER on Sunday, he said: “It’s getting to a year now and the boy was arrested in police custody. I’ve not heard anything concerning the case. My daughter, she’s all that brilliant and I want you Nigerians to come to my aid. Please, I’m helpless, I’m in the dark. I can’t just allow a girl just to go like that,” he said.

Idowu expressed fears that the suspect may have been released, and urged the public not to let his daughter’s memory be forgotten.

However, responding to the viral video on Sunday, the Force Public Relations Officer, CSP Benjamin Hundeyin, who was Lagos State Police spokesperson when the case was first reported, clarified that Adeleye remains in custody.

Hundeyin pointed to a January 2025 statement by the Nigerian Correctional Service, which confirmed that the suspect had been duly remanded, pending advice from the Department of Public Prosecution (DPP).

“The suspect has not been released. The matter is with the Department of Public Prosecution, as confirmed by the Correctional Service,” Hundeyin assured.