man stabs his own brother to death for helping a tenant

Anger is a momentary madness, so control your passion or it will control you. - Horace

THESE words of wisdom of a Roman poet was not heeded by Mufutau Babatunde who lives at Ayekale area of Ibadan, Oyo State, and this caused him to abruptly terminate the life of his own blood brother, Moruf Babatunde, on January 2, 2012 by stabbing him on the neck with a knife.

 Mufutau and his elder brother, Moruf were born of the same parents. Though the Babatundes are from Ora-Igbomina in Kwara State, they were fortunate to have their father erected a building at Ayekale Community in Ibadan before his death. Mufutau chose to live in one of the rooms in the house with his wife and kids while his brother, Moruf was in Lagos working as a security guard.

Late Moruf was reported to have come to Ibadan some months ago at the insistence of his junior brother, Mufutau, who felt he was not doing well in Lagos. The brothers started living together in Mufutau’s room. However, their stay together ceased on Monday, January  2. While Mufutau is currently cooling his heels in detention at the State Criminal Investigation Department (SCID), Iyaganku, Ibadan, pending the time investigations on his case would be concluded and he would be charged to court, his brother, Moruf, is already six feet down below, covered with earth.

Investigations revealed that the suspect’s action was as a result of his anger against his brother who decided to help one of the tenants in their father’s house to re-tie a broken rope on which they were spreading washed clothes in their compound.

On the fateful day, the female tenant had reportedly approached Mufutau first, pleading with him to help her tie the rope which broke. His negative response to her made her approach Mufutau’s senior brother to seek his assistance, which he willingly obliged. Mufutau had reportedly felt so much anger against his brother for yielding to the woman’s request and had threatened to go and cut the rope back.

Unable to comprehend why his brother was reacting over such a trivial matter, Moruf was said to have warned him against carrying out his threat to cut the rope. However, Mufutau did not heed his brother’s warning as he went ahead to cut the rope. Miffed by this lack of respect for him, Moruf had reportedly gone after his brother. As he caught up with him, he reportedly held him by his shirt from the back to castigate him for his behaviour.

Blinded with fury, however, Mufutau had allegedly turned his head towards his brother and used the knife he had earlier used in cutting the rope to stab his brother on the neck on the jugular vein. Immediately, he committed the act, he reportedly ran away while his brother was bleeding profusely from the point of injury. Neighbours who saw what happened made an attempt to rush him to the hospital but he gave up the ghost before he could get medical attention.

Hell was let loose in the area as the youths were reported to have gone after Mufutau, and when they caught up with him, he was beaten black and blue before he was rescued by the police from Monatan Division. His case was eventually transferred from there to the Homicide Section of the State CID. 

According to 40-year-old Mufutau who said he was a fashion designer, “I was the one who advised my brother to come to Ibadan when he told me the job he was doing in Lagos was not going well. His wife and children are in Ondo State and my own wife had gone to look after her sick mother, so I was alone in my room. I asked my brother to come to Ibadan and we secured a job for him as a security man. He joined me in August 2011.

“We had no problem with each other because most of the time, he would be leaving for work at the time I would be arriving from my shop and would come in the morning when I would be leaving for my shop. We were like this until the devil reared his ugly head on January 2. On the previous day, that is, January 1, I went for a muslim prayer vigil and came back in the morning. My brother was the one who went to buy eggs for us to fry to eat bread.

“I did not eat mine that day because I went to some friends’ house to celebrate the new year with them. On January 2, my brother returned from work and when I wanted to call someone to help me fry my eggs, my elder brother volunteered to do it for me and he did. When I finished eating, I went outside. That was when one of our tenants went to spread her clothes on the line and the line broke.

“She came to me and said I should help her but I replied her by asking whether she could not call her husband. She then said that if I would not help her she would go to my brother to seek his help. I replied her again that my brother is not anybody’s slave. I then told my brother not to tie the line for her and if he did, I would cut it.

“I went inside and my brother went to tie the rope. After he did, he came to me and dared me to go and cut the rope, hitting me where I laid. I could not touch him because he’s my elder brother. I took my phone and called the first born of our parents to narrate what happened and he admonished me to be patient. I went back inside and thinking that my brother had gone out, I took a knife and went to cut the rope.

“As I left the rope after cutting to enter the house, my brother held me from the back. In anger, I stabbed him on the neck with the knife I was holding. He screamed  and that attracted people’s attention. When I saw blood too, I was scared and I left the place. I was on my way to the police station to report myself when I was mobbed by youths in our area. I never intended to kill my brother. It was the work of the devil.” The deceased had since been buried according to Islamic rites.

Confirming the story, the Police Public Relations Officer in Oyo State, Mr Femi Okanlawon, a Superintendent of Police,said the suspect would be charged to court after the conclusion of investigations.