Ondo: Grandmother sets son, daughter-in-law, grandchildren ablaze for allegedly starving her

Police recover mutilated driver’s body at park

Residents of Aponmu in Akure South Local Council of Ondo State were yesterday, thrown into mourning, when an elderly woman in the community killed her son, daughter-in-law and two grandchildren by setting them on fire.

The suspect, identified as Iforiti, who used to live with her deceased son, Victor, set the family of four on fire at midnight.

Iforiti allegedly poured petrol into their room, after which she used a matchstick to ignite it, while the family was asleep.

Her son, Victor, daughter-in-law, Rachael and one of the grandchildren were confirmed dead by a medical doctor when they were rushed to the hospital, while the only surviving grandchild was in a critical condition, with medical personnel battling to save his life.

An eyewitness, Korede Michael said the fire was noticed at about 2:00 a.m., which made neighbours rush to the compound.

Michael added that neighbours had to break the window to rescue the victims.

She said: “The woman, her son, Victor Oloro; wife, Rachael and children, Toluwani and Blessing, were all in the house when the woman set it on fire.

“She got some dry palm fronds and little petrol her son kept in a gallon (for the generator), spread it around the house, and then ignite the fire.

“I was the first person to notice the fire and jumped into the house before other members of the community joined me in the rescue attempt. We got a vehicle immediately to transport them to Government hospital in Akure.

“When we got to Akure (the UNIMED annex), the doctors and nurses rejected the victims, saying they could not take care of them due to the degree of the burns, and advised that we take them to the Federal Medical Centre in Owo.

“Unfortunately, we lost the last grandchild, who was just two and a half years old, immediately after we got to Owo.

“On Sunday, the son and his wife gave up the ghost, while the only grandchild left was in a critical condition.”

The suspect, who was not injured in the inferno, was said to have attempted suicide sometime in 2022, by jumping into a well, but was rescued by neighbours.

Michael stressed that the children could not send the woman out of the house when she started behaving strangely because her late husband built the house.

The eyewitness said the grandmother confessed that she set her son and family on fire because they were starving her.

When contacted, the Police Public Relations Officer in the state, Funmilayo Odunlami-Omisanya, said the suspect had been transferred to the State Criminal Investigation Department (SCID).

Meanwhile, the police have evacuated the mutilated corpse of an unidentified man , discovered yesterday in Akure, to the mortuary.

The Guardian gathered that the corpse, suspected to be that of a male, was found around the Benin motorpark, with some of its parts cut off.

Sources within the area alleged that the killing was carried out by suspected ritualists, going by the manner he was killed.

According to police spokesperson, Odunlami-Omisanya, the Divisional Police Officer at Oba-Ile Police Station and his men had visited the scene and evacuated the corpse to the mortuary.

She added that preliminary findings showed that the man was a driver from the Idanre Local Council of the state.