Man pushes neighbour off bridge, steals his motorcycle

There seems to be no limit to what a man can do to look for money. Matthew at the crime scene advertisement This is true of 20-year-old Isaac Matthew, who caused a stir at the Lagos State Criminal Investigation Department when he narrated how he allegedly killed his neighbour, Solomon Gbeleyi, an Okada rider, in order to steal his motorycle. Matthew, an indigene of Jupe, Badagry, said he pushed Gbeleyi off a bridge and took off with the man's motorcycle. After weeks of searching the hospitals, mortuary and the area where Gbeleyi fell and not finding anything, the police concluded that Gbeleyi probably drowned and his body washed away by the river under the bridge. They therefore declared that he was dead. Gbeleyi family said they were at loss on whether to conduct a burial for him or continue to live with his memory. But Matthew was sure that his neighbour could not have survived the fall from the bridge. He told policemen from the SCID, "On July 8, 2011, around 7:30pm, I asked Gbeleyi to take me to Seme border. "Since we both live in Oko Afo, he decided to take me. More so, I told him that we would come back together. "We got to Gbagi bridge around 9pm. I told Gbeleyi to stop, saying that I wanted to ease myself. "While I was easing myself, Gbegi said he was also pressed and stood on the edge of the bridge to ease himself. "At that point, I did not know what came over me. I just saw that I moved near Gbeleyi and gave him a hard shove. He tumbled off the bridge and landed with a loud splash in the water below the bridge." Whatever came over Matthew prevented him from helping the drowning man. Instead, he jumped on Gbeleyi's motocycle and fled the scene with the okada. The okada was new and unregistered so Matthew decided to make quick money by selling it. Matthew told police interrogators that after the incident, he spent the rest of the night at his friend's house. "I told my friend that the okada was mine. I knew it was dangerous to return to Oko Afo with the okada and there was no way I could sell it in the morning, so I asked him to lend me N10,000 and hold on to the bike as a collateral." Probably smelling a rat, the friend declined the proposal. Matthew was thereafter forced to remain with the friend. It was gathered that the following day, around 5am, Matthew went back to the crime scene and waited there for some hours. Coincidentally, while Matthew was at the crime scene, a man who had lost N120,000 worth of goods to thieves sometime ago, had identified Matthew as one of the culprits and immediately raised the alarm. He was later handed over to the Trinity Police Station, Apapa. PUNCH METRO learnt that at the Police Station, Matthew owned up as being one of the robbers and said it was the money he got from selling the stolen goods that he used to buy the okada. Matthew was later granted bail but police held unto the okada until he would pay N120,000 back to the victim. After getting rid of the motorcycle, Matthew went back to Oko Afo; but unknown to him, somebody saw him when Gbeleyi was taking him to Seme. The people of the town were therefore looking for both of them thinking once one was found, the other would be found. When Matthew came back to the town without Gbeleyi, the residents were not ready to listen to any explanation. They promptly arrested him. Matthew who has confessed to the crime, also told PUNCH METRO that he was pushed into the act because he needed money. He said he went back to the scene because he was not at rest, "My conscience kept pushing me back to the scene," he said. He added that now that everybody knew what he did, he felt at peace. A police source told our correspondent that the case file would soon be closed, while Matthew would be taken to court. He said, "We have not been able to recover Gbeleyi's corpse since the incident. "We have gone to the crime scene, where Gbeleyi fell off the bridge and landed in water. Although we haven't found his corpse, we are sure he is dead because no one could have survived that fall." the senior policeman said. Spokesman of the Lagos State Police Command, Mr. Samuel Jinadu, said the police would still put finishing touches to its investigation before going to court.