Police arrest customs officer over daughter’s death

A senior customs of­ficer (name with­held) was yesterday arrested by the po­lice in Meran area of Ijaye, Ojokoro, Lagos State, over his alleged involvement in the mysterious death of his 17-year-old daughter and for reportedly beating his wife to a state of coma.

Some landlords in Olajide Byron Way, Ojokoro Ijaye, who reported the case to the police, alleged that the man beat his daughter (a medical student of the University of Benin) to death last Friday night and hurriedly buried her in his compound.
When his estranged wife (the mother of the girl) alleg­edly came to challenge him over the shocking death, he was said to have beaten her to a pulp and then took her to an unknown place.
Following the report, the police stormed his house yes­terday afternoon and whisked him away to their station, along with his younger brother, who was alleged to have aided him in throwing the woman out of the house before she fainted.
Narrating how the death oc­curred, the suspect said the girl just started vomiting blood af­ter eating food given to her by the new wife he married about two months ago.
“I called my family doctor to do autopsy for the corpse but he said only government hospital can do that. And as a Muslim, I had to bury her on time. So, I buried her the following morn­ing inside my house,” he said.
He added that he enquired from the deceased’s younger brother, his 12-year-old son, how the food was served to them and the boy confirmed that all the four children from his estranged wife were served the food and they ate together. The reason his daughter was the only one who vomited blood and died, he said, was still a mystery to him.
On why he hurriedly bur­ied her in his house, he said he was advised by some people to bury her at home to prove to anyone who wanted to chal­lenge him that he killed her for ritual or other ulterior motive to know that he would not have buried her in his house if he were responsible for her death