{"id":71368,"date":"2025-07-24T10:27:38","date_gmt":"2025-07-24T10:27:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/?p=71368"},"modified":"2025-07-24T10:27:38","modified_gmt":"2025-07-24T10:27:38","slug":"photojournalist-murdered-in-lokoja-suspected-ritual-killing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/2025\/07\/24\/photojournalist-murdered-in-lokoja-suspected-ritual-killing\/","title":{"rendered":"Photojournalist Murdered in Lokoja, Suspected Ritual Killing"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Patrick Idowu<\/strong><\/p>\n

A photojournalist with Inside Story<\/b>, Ayo Aiyepekun<\/b>, was brutally murdered on Tuesday night in Lokoja by a suspected ritualist, who is reportedly a staff member of the Nigeria Correctional Service.<\/p>\n

Aiyepekun was allegedly killed by his neighbor, <\/span>Adebayo Pelumi<\/span><\/b>, who resides in the same compound as the Inside Story office.<\/span><\/p>\n

An eyewitness, a colleague of the victim at Inside Story, recounted the horrifying incident. He stated that he was in the office with Aiyepekun around <\/span>7:30 PM<\/span><\/b> on Tuesday, July 22, 2025, when Pelumi called Aiyepekun to assist him at his poultry farm, also located within the compound.<\/span><\/p>\n

“Immediately Ayo got out, Adebayo hit him with iron repeatedly and killed him instantly,” the eyewitness reported.<\/p>\n

The witness further detailed seeing the suspect lifting Aiyepekun’s body into a deep freezer<\/b> before moving it into his Hilux van, prompting him to raise an alarm. “I called some people on the phone who mobilized the vigilante in the area, but before they could arrive, Adebayo had made away with the dead body.”<\/p>\n

Upon searching the area, the vigilante and the witness found a blood-stained freezer<\/b> and blood around the poultry stall. While they were still present, the suspect reportedly drove back into the compound in his van. Upon seeing them, he turned back and sped off. The vigilante pursued him, and during the chase, his vehicle was involved in an accident, after which he abandoned the van and fled on foot. The van was also reportedly stained with human blood.<\/p>\n

As of Wednesday, July 23, 2025, Aiyepekun’s body had not been recovered, leading to fears that the murder may be linked to ritualistic practices.<\/p>\n

The case was officially reported at the State Police Headquarters in Lokoja<\/b> on Wednesday. The suspect, Adebayo Pelumi, is identified as a staff of the Correctional Centre. His wife reportedly separated from him two months ago due to persistent domestic abuse.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Patrick Idowu A photojournalist with Inside Story, Ayo Aiyepekun, was brutally murdered on Tuesday night in Lokoja by a suspected ritualist, who is reportedly a staff member of the Nigeria Correctional Service. Aiyepekun was allegedly killed by his neighbor, Adebayo Pelumi, who resides in the same compound as the Inside Story office. An eyewitness, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":29,"featured_media":71369,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[181],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-71368","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-crime"],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71368","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/29"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=71368"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71368\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":71370,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71368\/revisions\/71370"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/71369"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=71368"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=71368"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=71368"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}