By Onozure Dania

Lagos—A 98-year-old woman, Mrs Arinola Sunmola, yesterday narrated before a Lagos High Court sitting in Igbosere, how her grandson, Tunde, was allegedly killed by her former daughter in –law and her husband before dumping the corpse in a canal.

Sunmola, who is a chief in Ijebu-Ode, said that the deceased’s mother, Margaret Olufunmilayo Odunlade, had come to pick him for holiday, to spend some time with his younger sister Omobowale, at her place in Ikeja, when he was killed.

The defendants, Margaret Olufunmilayo Odunlade, mother of the deceased, alongside her husband Folorunsho Emmanuel and mother –in-law, Funke Maxwell, were arraigned on August 2014, for allegedly killing one Tunde Sunmola, by beating him to death, by the Lagos State government .

They are facing a two count charge of manslaughter and misconduct of corpse, preferred against them by Lagos State.

Lagos State prosecuting counsel Mr Adebayo Haroun, said that the offences was committed on August 2, 2014, at about 6am, at 17, Emmanuel Street, Maryland, Ikeja Lagos.

He said that they unlawfully killed Tunde Sunmola by beating him and not taking him to the hospital for treatment of injuries he sustained on his leg.

Haroun also accused the mother of the deceased, Odunlade, of dumping the corpse of the deceased in a canal.

According to the prosecutor, the offence is punishable under sections 222 and 163, of the criminal laws of Lagos state, 2011.

At the resumed hearing of the case yesterday, the 98 year old witness, who was led in examination in chief, by the prosecuting counsel, Mr Haroun, said that the defendant had requested that Tunde should come and pay his sister a visit and she had insisted that she was going to accompany Tunde to the defendant’s place, before the incident occurred.

The witness said that Odunlade had remarried, Folorunsho, after she separated from her son, Segun Sunmola, the deceased’s father.

She said that when they got to the defendant’s place in Lagos, the defendant quickly got down from upstairs, ran to meet her on the road and asked her to go back to Ijebu, that she cannot enter the house with the deceased, that Folorunsho (the defendant’s husband), had said that he will kill the deceased if he sees him, so they went back to Ijebu that night.

The nonagenarian said that three months later the defendant called and said she wanted to take the deceased to Lagos, so that he can spend some time with his sister, adding that she refused but neighbours intervened in the matter, that she should allow him go with her, because as the deceased mother she cannot harm him.

“Odunlade came in company of the deceased’s younger sister, Omobowale Sunmola, her elder sister, Yemi, a day after she had taken Tunde to Lagos, she asked me to give her some money which I did. Then on that same day, she came back again to ask for money, then I now told her that I will only give her on the condition that she brings back my grandson,” the witness said.

She further stated that the deceased aunty, Yemi, asked the defendant to tell her what had happened, adding that she later told her that they had an accident on their way and the defendant died.

“ I requested that they bring Tunde’s corpse, so they agreed, but I did not allow my granddaughter, Tunde’s younger sister to go back with them. When they got to Mowe Ibafo, they told the people in my neighbourhood, who was driving them down to Lagos that they wanted to defecate, that was how they escaped up till now I don’t know where the corpse is, ‘’ the witness told the court.

According to her, when she asked Omobowale what transpired when they got to Lagos, it was then that she informed her that Tunde was beaten to death, by her mother’s new husband and his mother.

She said “ Omobowale said that when they got home, her step father was still at work, but that when he came back from work, he and his mother, started beating the deceased until he died.”

The deceased’s younger sister, Omobowale Sunmola, who also gave evidence as the third prosecution witness, confirmed what her grandma had said.

Omobowale said that when they got to Lagos, her mother, asked the brother to start moving ahead of them and when she asked why, the mother said that she doesn’t want people to know that the deceased was her son.

She said: “That night when my mum’s husband came back from work, he asked my mum, who is this boy, and she said it’s one of her sons, she had by mistake, so they quarrelled and he asked why she didn’t tell him, about my brother, she could not say anything.

“That night after we had slept, I heard my mum’s husband and his mother beating my brother, and my mum just stood there and was watching, later she carried my brother on her back, when I asked her where she was going with him, she said that she was taking him, back to Ijebu” the witness said.

She further stated that she got to know about her brother’s demise from her mum’s elder sister, Yemi, who informed her that her brother was dead.

However Justice Sedotan Ogunsanya, after listening to the evidence, adjourned the case till June 26, for continuation of trial.