The Oyo State Police Command has arrested a 20-year-old man, Tosin Kolade, for allegedly raping and killing a teenage girl, Ifeoluwa Apanpa.

The suspect, who was paraded on Tuesday told journalists that he lured the girl inside a church where he raped her and strangulated her to death.

The suspect said his mum was a cleaner at the church where he committed the crime. He said he had waited for his victim to pass through the place to her church and he requested her to help him carry some chairs when he pounced on her.

“On 17th September 2022, I went back home around 1pm from work because we didn’t have work that day. We were just sleeping at the shop, I told my boss that I wanted to go and ease myself, my boss allowed me and said I should come back quickly.

“When I got home, I took the key to our church because my mum is the cleaner of the church and went to church. I packed all chairs in the church together, I knew the time Ifeoluwa would pass through our church on the way to her church.

“She eventually passed and I asked her to assist me in carrying some of the chairs I had already packed.

“I took out a knife from my pocket and I instructed her not to shout, I wanted to attack her to collect her phone but she dragged the knife with me and the knife fell, she also fell down and hit her head on the ground while trying to escape.

“She became weak and I raped her, I took her phone and asked her for the password to her phone, she gave me wrong password, when I discovered that the password was wrong, I strangulated her.”

The Police Commissioner in the state, Adebowale Williams, said his men attached to Iyana-Offa Divisional Police Headquarters were notified of the sudden disappearance of Ifeoluwa, a 17- year-old female who according to reports left for church at about 1600hrs and was yet to return home.

The CP said, “A search party was immediately raised to know what caused her disappearance, while this was ongoing as a call was placed to the parents of the deceased by an unknown caller stating clearly the deceased had been abducted.”

He said preliminary investigation revealed that the corpse was found “beside a Bible School at Olodo Area, with a bloody genitalia, coupled with signs of struggling which indicated that she might have been manhandled before her eventual untimely death.”

He added that investigation continues as the case have been transferred to the State Criminal Investigation Department.