Adelani Adepegba, Abuja

An artisan, Samarola Musa, has allegedly beaten his apprentice, Ademola Adeshina, to death for his refusal to stop dating a lady in the Lugbe area of Abuja.

Musa, who is facing a homicide charge at a Federal Capital Territory High Court, Gwagwalada, Abuja, is believed to have had a homosexual relationship with the 24-year-old man.

It was learnt that an autopsy indicated that Ademola died as a result of the beating he received from Musa.

The report also showed that the furniture maker had sodomised his apprentice before his death in May 2017.

Musa, 42, in his statement to the police, said he slapped the deceased after he caught him having sex with the lady, identified simply as Precious, in his workshop, claiming that Ademola died of malaria a week after the incident.

But Ademola’s father, Okuneye, faulted Musa’s claims, stressing that the son died from the beatings he received from the former bouncer, who he described as a huge man.

He told PUNCH Metro that Musa had once informed him that Ademola was dating a lady he did not approve of, adding that he warned the deceased to stop going out with the lady.

The bereaved father said his son called him on May 3, two days before his death that he had malaria, adding that he visited him at the workshop and found him working.

“About 48 hours after, I got a text message from Musa asking me to call him back urgently. I did and he simply told me that my son had passed away; I was shocked. He said he was at Asokoro General Hospital and when I got there, I found my son lying in the back seat of his Honda Accord car with his face against the glass window,” he said.

Okuneye said the accused informed him that his son died of malaria and suggested that the body should be buried, but he insisted on depositing it in a morgue.

The engineer explained that after returning home, he received a call from Precious, who narrated to him how Musa beat his son to death.

He said, “The girl said she witnessed the assault and when she confronted Musa, he injured her in the leg. I asked if she was ready to make a statement at the police station about it and she agreed.

“Musa was arrested and he admitted to beating my boy because he was dating the girl. We did a post-mortem on the body and it showed that Ademola suffered serious internal injury from the beating.

“The autopsy also showed that the boy was sodomised; it was after this that we got to know that Musa is a well known homosexual in Lugbe and its environs; he had been sleeping with my son and he killed him because he was dating a woman.”

Our correspondent gathered that the family had made plans to bury the deceased last Saturday, but the police declined to grant them the permission to carry out the funeral.

The accused was remanded in Kuje prisons by the court on Monday, while the case was adjourned till November 20,2017.

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