How A Teen Killed His Childhood Friend In Lagos.The suspects identified as Emmanuel and Ogenata revealed how they strangled Thompson to death after informing his family to pay a ransom.
Kano —
Thompson,17, left home to visit his childhood friend, Elijah Emmanuel, in the Abraham Adesanya area of Ajah, Lagos, a location not far from where his family resided.
Emmanuel, 23, was Thompson’s classmate during a term at Army Cantonment (Day) School in Ikeja. He left the school which made them lose contact before reuniting on social media.
Recounting what happened,the deceased elder sister Rosemary Onyibe, in an Interview with Punch said her brother left home by 2pm.
“That Wednesday, Thompson left home around 2 pm. He didn’t provide a specific address; he only told us he wanted to visit his Primary 6 schoolmate” she said
How A Teen Killed His Childhood Friend In Lagos
“As the evening went on, around 5 pm, his sister, Precious, tried calling him, but his phone rang twice and was then switched off. We grew increasingly worried, especially since he took a large 30,000mAh power bank, making it odd that his phone would die so suddenly” she added
After waiting till midnight with no sight of Thompson,the next morning the deceased elder sister,Loveth reported the incident to the police. while at the station, she received a text message from Thompson’s phone number, informing the family that Thompson had been kidnapped,instructing the family to download a private messaging application called Zangi.
Killed And Dumped In A Canal
After the abductors informed the Adams family of the teen’s kidnapping and demanded N150m as ransom, they paid the police to track Thompson’s SIM card to determine his location.
A disappearing photo of Thompson wearing only red underwear with his mouth gagged with a piece of cloth in an unconscious state,was seen on the Zangi app.
How A Teen Killed His Childhood Friend In Lagos
A text in pidgin was sent.
“Dated April 23, 2026, a text in Pidgin English accompanying the photo read, “Una go package N150m if una need am healthy and sound.”
Two other chilling messages were received about two minutes after the first, from the same user whose name appeared as ‘Pabs
” play by my rules… try to play smart or whatever, your family loses. Play by my rules, and everywhere will go well. No question asked! Any move, I kill him, and it’s gone. Na wetin I tell you, you go do,” it read.
The Lagos State Anti-Kidnapping Unit,had apprehended the suspects who abducted Thompson, Emmanuel and his accomplice, Tony Ogenata, 21, were successfully tracked on the evening of April 27.
How A Teen Killed His Childhood Friend In Lagos
Describing how they were arrested, the state Commissioner of Police, Tijani Fatai, said, “Operatives of the command, acting on credible intelligence, traced and arrested the suspected kidnappers at Lucky Fibre, Ikorodu, Lagos.
“The two boys went out with their friend, Adams, who was their secondary schoolmate. Along the line, they murdered him.” he narrated
He further disclosed that the suspects, in a bid to cover their tracks, later kept the body in a bag and disposed of it somewhere in the community.
The police identified the community where Thompson’s murder took place as Abule Parapo in Awoyaya, Ibeju-Lekki, which was about a seven-minute drive from the Adams family home.
How A Teen Killed His Childhood Friend In Lagos
According to the Anti-Kidnapping Unit, the precise scene of the crime was a bungalow with two mini-apartments on Tunji Ogunsanya Street.
A range of items, including a machete, a hacksaw, a spike with a red handle, a club-like object, and chains were recovered from the apartment.
Suspects Narrates What Transpire
When we finished tying him up, his friend (Emmanuel) called me into the room and said, ‘This guy is a friend from old times, and he knows me, my aunt, and a lot about me. If we let this guy go, he will definitely come back for me, so we need to kill him,’ and I said, ‘Okay.’
“I strangled him and held him for about a minute. When I got tired, the boy was still half alive. I told him I was tired and couldn’t do it anymore, and Emmanuel also held the guy and choked him the same way I did until he saw that the boy was quiet,”Ogenata said in an interview with Channels Television
How A Teen Killed His Childhood Friend In Lagos
Further investigation revealed that the suspects fled the area where they committed the crime and took refuge at their parents’ residence in Ikorodu after disposing the body in a canal, where they were later apprehended.
Both of them were Thompson’s classmates from Primary 6. They confessed that they had been watching him since he was a child, targeting him because they believed his family was wealthy.they tied him up, filmed him, and took his life before they even demanded the ransom.
The 23-year-old (Emmanuel) told the 21-year-old (Ogenata) that they should both kill Thompson because the boy’s father is a retired soldier and he knows him and his family. The killer confessed that they tied his body and dumped him in a canal at Awoyaya.
“When the anti-kidnapping squad went to the canal, they searched and searched but couldn’t find the body. So, on Tuesday (April 28), they asked community members if they had found any corpse. It was then that they showed them the picture of a body that was found in the bush.
How A Teen Killed His Childhood Friend In Lagos
They said they called the police immediately, and the body was taken to Yaba,” she explained
Onyibe said the family later obtained a letter from the police station in the community to claim Thompson’s corpse in Yaba.
When the suspects led the police to the crime scene, along with journalists who were present, one of the suspects was said to have worn a cloth belonging to the deceased.
“On behalf of this family, what I am asking for is justice for my brother. I’m pleading with Nigerians that I need justice. Please, they should help me,” Adebayo said in an interview with Channels TV
Unemployment Pushes Youth To Crime
Lack of economic opportunities and societal pressure has pushed many youths in Nigeria into criminal activities to survive.
The World Economic Forum’s Global Risks Report identified lack of economic opportunity and unemployment as Nigeria’s leading threat for the 2026 economic year.
How A Teen Killed His Childhood Friend In Lagos
Some recruiters have argued that the youths lack practical and employability skills to contribute in today’s world environment, as calls for skills acquisition and vocational training to meet up with real life situations and global demands have intensified within Nigeria.
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