By Adewale Momoh
For residents of Aponmu in Akure South Local Council of Ondo, it was like a scene in a Nollywood movie when an elderly woman in the community set her son, daughter-in-law, and her two grandchildren ablaze.
The grandmother, identified as Iforiti, who used to live with her deceased son, Victor, set the family of four ablaze yesterday at midnight.
The suspect allegedly committed the crime while the family was fast asleep when she poured petrol into their room, after which she used a matchstick to ignite it.
With Victor, Rachael, and one of the grandchildren confirmed dead after they were rushed to the hospital, the only surviving grandchild was said to be in critical condition, with medical personnel battling to save his life.
According to an eyewitness in the community, the fire was noticed around 2:00 a.m., which made everyone rush to the compound.
Michael added that neighbors 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 the little petrol her son kept in a gallon (for the generator), spread it around the house, and then put fire to it.
“I was the first person to notice the fire and jumped into the house before other members of the community joined me in rescuing them. We got a vehicle immediately to transport them to the government hospital in Akure.”
Korede further narrated that “when we got to Akure (the UNIMED annex), the doctors and nurses rejected the patients, 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 Center 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 is 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 said, “The children could not send the woman out of the house when she started behaving strangely because it was built by her late husband.”
The eyewitness disclosed that the grandmother confessed that she burned her son and his family because they were starving her.
When contacted, the Police Public Relations Officer in the State, Funmilayo Odunlami-Omisanya, stated that the suspect had been transferred to the State Criminal Investigation Department (SCID).
Meanwhile, the mutilated corpse of an unidentified man was discovered yesterday in Akure, the state capital.
It was gathered that the corpse, suspected to be that of a male, which was at the Benin motorpark axis, had some of its parts cut off.
Sources in the area alleged that the killing was carried out by suspected ritualists due to the manner in which he was killed.
According to the police spokesperson, the Divisional Police Officer at Oba-Ile Police Station and his men had visited the scene, and the corpse had been evacuated to the mortuary.
She added that preliminary findings showed that the man was said to be a driver from the Idanre Local Council of the state.