Matilda Omonaiye/
The disappearance of the corpse of a 52-year-old woman, Yemisi John, is the mystery the police are battling to solve over four months after her alleged death in the house of her pastor lover in Benin, Edo State.
NewsmakersNG learnt that the deceased left her home in Akure, Ondo State on July 28 to visit the 42-year-old pastor, whom she met on Facebook.
That was the last time she was seen by her family, either dead or alive.
Her disappearance had remained a mystery until detectives attached to Inspector General of Police Intelligence Response Team (IRT), headed by DCP Abba Kyari, traced her footsteps to Summit Road, opposite Radio Nigeria, Benin, which turned out to be the home of Pastor Joseph Kofi Martey of City of Fire Ministry.
Martey didn’t give the police too much trouble as he promptly confessed that Yemisi died in his house hours after they had sex. He claimed that he dumped her body by the roadside close to his house before daybreak.
The police, however, are not buying his confession hook, line and sinker. Detectives say the story is not as simple as narrated by the pastor.
Who took the corpse away?
That is the big question he could not yet answer.
Speaking on the sequence of events that resulted in his predicament in an interview with journalists, Martey said he met the deceased on a Facebook group known as ‘Single Parents’, which he joined some months after the death of his wife, with whom he had a young son.
“I know her as Titilola John. It was at the police station that they told me that her name is Yemisi,” he said.
He said from casual chatting, they soon became friends, adding, “We also exchanged phone numbers. I have written a lot of Christian books, but I need an expert to edit it for me. She suggested that I should allow her to do it free of charge.”
He said that it was the woman who pushed for a relationship.
His words: “She was based in Akure and had been disturbing that I should visit her. I told her I did not have much money to send to her. She then insisted that she would borrow money from a friend and travel to Benin. She kept saying I should allow her to be part of my life and help me take care of my son.
“On July 28, she called me that she was already in Benin and could not trace my house. I was surprised but because she was already in Benin I decided to go to the bus stop and pick her up. She was carrying a small bag. As soon as we got home, she took her bath and relaxed. I prepared Indomie noodles for her and she ate a little and drank malt.
“At about 9 pm after praying, she asked me if I was just going to allow her to sleep without touching her. I told her I needed to remarry and have children and she was 54 and above childbearing age. She kept pleading that we were a good match, arguing that I am a writer and she was good at editing and she could get pregnant by the grace of God.
“She pleaded with me that since her husband left her, no man had touched her and that she needed sex. I agreed. We made love. It did not last more than 20 minutes because I was tired. She was satisfied with the little time we spent and we slept off.
“Around 4 am, I tried to wake her up so that we could pray. Her body was cold and when I turned her around there was foam on her mouth.
“I panicked and did not know what to do. I have not lived for long in that area. If neighbours discovered that a woman died in my house, they would kill me before I get to the police station. I am the only one living in the compound, so no one saw us when we walked into the compound. I decided to dispose of her body before the daybreak. I dragged her from the bed to the street and dumped her by the roadside.”
When he came out at about 5 am, he saw people gathered around the corpse snapping pictures.
“They wondered who dropped the dead body there. I walked past them pretending to be an onlooker. Afterwards, I went back to my room, knelt down and prayed. At 6 am, I came out again and discovered the body was gone,” he said.
Martey also insisted that he did not poison her because he too ate from the food.
He said: “If I killed her, will I stay in Benin and wait for the police to come and arrest me? Police should go back to that street and ask them if a certain corpse was dumped on our street around June. How I wish that police can find the corpse, this is the only way that I can prove that I am innocent. I have a lung disease, so I cannot even have sex with a woman for more than 20 minutes.”
Nonetheless, the police did not believe his confession is the end of the investigation.
“We are still looking for her (Yemisi) dead or alive. Whatever he is saying is his own side of the story. It’s only when the body is found and an autopsy performed that we can ascertain the circumstances surrounding her death,” a police source disclosed.
“Finding the corpse will confirm or refute his claim. It is possible that she was murdered,” said the source.
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