By ALBERT AKPOR

LAGOS — DETECTIVES at the homicide department of the State Investigation Department, SCID, Panti,Yaba, Lagos are still battling to unravel the circumstances surrounding the death of two persons, suspected to be  a mother and her son,  in their Aina Road, Agilete, Mile 12 apartment in Lagos.

The bodies were at decomposing stage when detectives broke into the three-bedroom apartment, following alarm raised by the caretaker of the building, after he got a court order to forcefully  open the apartment and remove the property of the occupants.

Sources said the agent told detectives that he saw the woman last in 2010, when he came to remind her of the expiration of  her rent.

It was not clear what happened to the deceased but sources said  detectives and a team of pathologists from the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital, LASUTH, Ikeja, arrived the building and that the woman and a 27-year man, suspected to be her son, had not been sighted for sometimes.

When the apartment was forced opened, the team discovered the decomposing bodies.  The corpses were later identified as one Emma Johnson and Papa Johnson.  Five persons have been arrested and are helping detectives in their investigations.

Sources said the decomposing  female corpse was found lying face up on a  dusty sofa  with a cross on her left hand while the man’s remains was more of a skeleton, at the extreme of the room, close to where a  stainless pot  with palm oil inside  was placed  on a  rusty stove.

A dusty  photo album of the woman and her family was  also seen on the wall adjacent,  loosely hanging close where decomposed corpse was.  The bodies had been evacuated for autopsy.