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| The Suspect |
What began as a calculated robbery in the Wofun community of Olodo ended with the death of a 44-year-old housewife, the near-fatal wounding of her husband, an alleged attempt on their daughter, and the eventual arrest of three young men whose confessions paint a disturbing picture of how quickly former inmates can reassemble into predatory networks.
The attack unfolded at the residence of Alhaji Muiz Olatokunbo. Around 2:30 a.m., three men who had earlier hidden in nearby bush forced their way into the building while the family slept. According to detailed accounts later given to investigators and reported by Saturday Tribune, one of the suspects—identified as Okunola Mathew, 24—led the group into the couple’s bedroom. A struggle ensued.
Mathew admitted stabbing both the husband and wife in the neck. “That was when I stabbed the man; I won’t lie, I stabbed the man,” he told the newspaper. Asked if he also stabbed the woman, he replied simply: “Yes, I stabbed his wife also.” Mrs. Wahab Rukayat, 44, did not survive. Her husband sustained wounds so severe that his intestines were exposed; he underwent emergency surgery at University College Hospital (UCH) Ibadan and spent several weeks recovering.
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Police statements confirm the robbers made off with mobile phones, wristwatches, $400 in cash, and other valuables valued at approximately ₦3.493 million. An iPhone 7 Plus belonging to one of the victims was later recovered.
The Arrest and the Confessions
Nearly two months later, on the night of October 2, operatives of the Oyo State Police Command’s Violent Crime Response Unit (VCRU) raided a hideout in the Sabo area of Ibadan. They arrested Akinrinola Oluwatobi (28, also called Tobi), Okunola Mathew (24), and Ibrahim Rabiu (23). Surviving victims identified them in a formal parade. A fourth suspect known only as “Oyo” remains at large.
Mathew’s account is particularly chilling for its matter-of-fact tone. He described seeing one of the couple’s daughters bathing before the gang entered the house, then later approaching her in her room.
He admitted making a sexual advance but claimed he did not touch her after she told him she was menstruating. “I made a move, truly, but I didn’t touch her,” he said. The admission adds a layer of sexual predation to an already lethal robbery—an element that has fueled public anger in a city still reeling from other recent atrocities.
Tobi, for his part, linked the group to a separate robbery in the Moniya area. He claimed a man named Sefianu, described as a dealer in stolen phones and laptops who operated around Sabo and Mokola, supplied the target location and even arranged a commercial motorcyclist to take them there. After the job, the gang allegedly returned to sell the phones to him. Ibrahim admitted participating in the Moniya operation but denied any role in the fatal Wofun attack. “Truthfully, speaking of the place Matthew said he went and killed someone, I wasn’t there at all,” he insisted.
From Correctional Centres Back to the Streets
Perhaps the most revealing—and damning—detail is the suspects’ recent histories with the justice system. Mathew told investigators he had been arrested in 2020 for alleged armed robbery and remanded while his case dragged through the courts. He claimed he was released in October 2025 during a decongestion exercise of correctional facilities in the state. Tobi had been convicted of phone theft, served a one-year sentence, and was released in June 2025. The two men reportedly reconnected at a birthday party in a hotel in Ibadan in July 2025—an event attended by other former inmates. Tobi, originally from Ogbomoso, said that meeting pulled him back into crime.
This pattern is not isolated. Earlier in 2026, Tribune reported on other ex-inmates who left Abolongo and Agodi custodial centres only to form new robbery gangs that terrorised parts of Ibadan for months.
The cycle—arrest, prolonged remand or short sentences, release under overcrowding pressures, and rapid return to violent crime—highlights structural weaknesses in both prosecution timelines and post-release supervision.
A Broader Climate of Fear
The Wofun killings did not occur in a vacuum. Just days before the suspects’ detailed confessions became public, Oyo police announced the arrest of three other men over the September 22 murder of a family of six in Oloba village, Lagelu Local Government Area—allegedly sparked by a dispute over a damaged phone. In that case, victims were shot, beaten, and some bodies dumped in a river.
The proximity of these two high-profile family attacks has intensified public outrage and scrutiny of security responses.
Ibadan and wider Oyo State have long struggled with armed robbery. A 2025 academic study published in the Journal of Humanities and Social Science found high prevalence rates in the metropolis, with respondents citing unemployment, poverty, inequality, and social disorganisation as key drivers. Many victims reported knowing people killed during such attacks. Night-time home invasions in semi-urban fringes like Wofun, Olodo, Akobo, and Moniya remain a persistent threat, often involving small groups using knives, cutlasses, or locally made firearms, relying on local informants, and quickly fencing stolen electronics.
The Role of the Violent Crime Response Unit
The arrests themselves reflect a relatively new institutional response. In May 2026, Governor Seyi Makinde formally inaugurated the VCRU at the state police headquarters in Eleyele, describing it as timely and necessary. The unit was designed to replace older tactical teams with a more intelligence-driven, professional, and rights-compliant formation. Officers underwent specialised training; the governor donated operational vehicles.
Police statements emphasise “sustained intelligence gathering and the strategic leverage of technology” in tracking the Wofun suspects to Sabo.
Commissioner of Police Abimbola Ayodeji Olugbenga has repeatedly directed the unit to pursue remaining gang members and receivers of stolen property.
Whether the VCRU can systematically disrupt the networks that recycle young men from overcrowded prisons into new robbery crews remains an open question. Early successes—recoveries of phones, identification of fences like the alleged Sefianu, and public confessions—offer some reassurance. Yet the speed with which Mathew and Tobi returned to crime after release underscores that enforcement alone cannot solve the problem.
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Deeper Implications
Several uncomfortable truths emerge from this case. First, decongestion exercises without robust rehabilitation, monitoring, or economic alternatives can simply recycle risk back into communities.
Second, the presence of specialised “receivers” who buy phones and laptops creates a ready market that sustains the violence. Third, the alleged sexual element—whether fully executed or not—reminds us that home invasions frequently escalate beyond theft into profound personal violation, especially for women and girls present in the household.
For residents of Wofun, Olodo, and similar neighbourhoods, the practical lessons are stark: reinforced doors, community vigilance groups, rapid reporting of suspicious loitering, and awareness that even “soft” targets can attract lethal attention. For policymakers, the case should prompt harder questions about court delays that keep suspects on prolonged remand, the quality of post-release support, and the need for better tracking of high-risk individuals.
As of early October 2026, the three arrested men remain in custody pending further investigation and likely charges of armed robbery, murder, and related offences. One accomplice is still free. Alhaji Olatokunbo continues his recovery. A family has been permanently altered. And Ibadan, like many Nigerian cities, continues to wrestle with the stubborn reality that violent crime is rarely just a failure of policing—it is also a failure of systems that repeatedly return the same young men to the same desperate choices under cover of darkness.
The confessions of Mathew, Tobi, and Ibrahim do more than close one case file. They illuminate a pipeline of recidivism that, unless broken, will keep producing similar midnight tragedies in the years ahead.
Samuel O. Sulaimon is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of Naijapiz. He covers News, Sports, Finance, Faiths, Education, Technology.
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