Sometimes, certain crime stories simply boggle the mind by their sheer senselessness. Time and again, depraved individuals execute dastardly, extremely callous and blood-curdling acts that put a question mark on the entire point about human existence. Such is the case of the five farm workers recently arrested by the police in Edo State for killing their employer and burying him in a shallow grave in Igueze village of Ovia North East Local Council of the State. The victim, 56-year-old Henry Oyagbomwan, had only provided employment opportunity to those he thought needed it, but apparently the beneficiaries had other ideas. According to reports, Oyagbomwan was murdered after selling pineapples worth N900,000 on his farm on Friday, May 13, 2025. As police investigations revealed, the suspects, after collecting the proceeds from the sale, abducted and killed their employer before fleeing to various locations. As if this horrific crime was not enough, the killers then hatched a plot to collect a hefty ransom from his family, claiming that they were kidnappers and would execute him if his family did not produce the requested ransom.

The suspects reportedly demanded the sum of N60 million from the farmer’s family, but after the family insisted on speaking with their loved one before making any payment, the suspects reduced the ransom to N300,000. Lamented a son of the deceased: “After we gave them money, one of them told me he would show me where my father was, and I sent him money again. Later, we discovered that my father had been killed shortly after the initial ransom was paid.” The Edo State Police Command has, however, arrested five suspects in connection with the incident. A 33-year-old individual named Samuel from Akwa Ibom State, reportedly confessed to his role in the crime, even as the police command assured the public that all suspects would face justice once investigations were concluded.

Often in this country, young people who should be working hard to build a comfortable future for themselves resort to crime in order to create quick, unexplainable wealth with which they earn unmerited honour in the society. To such individuals, the point is to make money, not to worry about who gets hurt in the process. When a certain Awaji Moses, a 26-year-old man from Benue State, killed his 38-year-old employer, Victor Ochei, on June 22 this year, he had an alibi in allegedly unpaid salaries amounting to N300,000. He had hit his boss twice on the neck with a pestle used for pounding palm fruits while they were on their way to buy palm fruits, and then followed this evil act up with a demand for N10 million from the victim’s family, receiving N300,000 before being arrested by men of the Delta State command of the Nigeria Police. This month, Ayomide Oluwadamilare, a 25-year-old driver, was arrested by the police in Ogun State for allegedly murdering his former employer, Kola Adun. He had been trying to sell the victim’s Toyota Camry.

In the present case, the victim of the sadistic violence perpetrated by the suspects laboured to establish a farm and then created employment opportunities, but those to whom he paid wages decided not only to rob but to kill him. It would have been bad enough to kill him, because apparently, like all employers of labour, he paid his workers from the profits he made in the business, but the suspects went ahead to shed his blood in order to take possession of his money. And because they did not see the world beyond their own comfort, however illegally obtained, they then turned his disappearance into an opportunity to fleece his distraught family. It takes a certain level of depravity to come up with that kind of scheme. It is clear that the suspects in this case do not have the slightest regard for human life, and there is no reason such people should be allowed to continue living among decent people.

We urge the police to ensure that justice is done in this case. The suspects are callous in the extreme and should not be given another opportunity to cheat, rob and kill innocent citizens. We sympathise with the family of the deceased and hope that they will have the fortitude to bear the irreparable loss. (Nigerian Tribune Editorial)