‘ I killed my father because he wanted to use me for rituals’

One week after he was arrested by the police, Abubakar Babalola, an Ireland deportee, suspected to have stabbed his father to death and attempted to kill his mother, yesterday confessed to the crime.

Babalola, who was paraded yesterday by the Lagos State Police Command, attributed his act to his angst over his parents’ decision to allegedly use him for rituals.

According to the suspect, “my father got what he wanted. He started it all. I was living in the United Kingdom when he used black magic to bring me back to Nigeria and he locked me up in the house.

“I don’t know what they intended to do with me. They called some native doctors to do some rituals with red oil, which they kept in my room. The native doctors made some incisions on my body and since then, I have not really been myself. I have been seeing strange things and hearing strange voices.

“As a religious person, I resorted to God and was praying for my freedom but each time I tried to escape, my father will call miscreants, (area boys) who will beat me up with reckless abandon. The intimidation was too much and I was looking for any means of escape. One day, I escaped from my room to the kitchen and I took two kitchen knives, which I hid in my pocket for protection.

“On that fateful day, while my mother was cooking in the kitchen, I greeted her but she started raining abuses on me. I knew there was trouble because she always was angry.

“I went to my father too and he started raining curses on me. When I asked what the problem was, he started beating me and as I was tired of his beating, I dipped my hand in my pocket and brought out the knife and stabbed him in the leg.

“When he wanted to disarm me, I stabbed him in the stomach and he fell down and my mother started shouting. I threatened her to give me the key to the door so that I could leave. She refused and I stabbed her too. They started it all. They wanted to use me for ritual. I regret my actions anyway but if they did not bring me back to Nigeria, I would have still been in the UK,” he told newsmen.The Commissioner of Police, Lagos State Command, Fatai Owoseni, said the suspect would be charged to court for murder.