What began as a harmless visit to an old primary school friend ended in horror for 17-year-old Thompson Adams, whose life was brutally cut short in Lagos, VICTOR AYENI writes
Seventeen-year-old Thompson Adams was on the cusp of a promising future, filled with dreams of gaining admission into the university and building a better life. But those hopes were tragically cut short, leaving his family shattered by grief.
On April 22, Thompson left home after informing his family that he was visiting a childhood friend, Elijah Emmanuel, in the Abraham Adesanya area of Ajah, Lagos, a location not far from where his family resided.
Emmanuel, 23, had once been Thompson’s classmate during a term at Army Cantonment (Day) School in Ikeja. After losing contact for years, they reconnected via social media months before the incident.
Over time, he had extended multiple invitations for Thompson to visit him, but the teenager had consistently declined until that fateful Wednesday.
Recounting what happened, a member of the Adams family, Rosemary Onyibe, said, “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.
“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.
“Despite hoping that he was simply staying over somewhere, we couldn’t reach him all night. At about 4 am, his phone started ringing again, but still no one answered.”
The next day, at about 11 am, Thompson’s elder sister, Lovett, went to a police station to officially report her brother as missing.
Saturday gathered that while Lovett was at the station, she received a text message from Thompson’s phone number.
The message instructed the family to download a private messaging application called Zangi, adding that Thompson had been kidnapped.
Killed and dumped in a canal
When 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.
Saturday saw a disappearing photo of a distressed Thompson wearing only red underwear, with his mouth gagged with a piece of cloth, which was sent by his kidnappers to the family via the Zangi app at 11:35 am.
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 C.’
“We 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 dumb move, I kill him, and it’s gone. Na wetin I tell you, you go do,” it read.
With the help of the state Anti-Kidnapping Unit, the suspects who abducted Thompson, Emmanuel and his accomplice, Tony Ogenata, 21, were successfully tracked and apprehended on the evening of April 27.
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 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.
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 believed to have been used for restraint, were recovered from the apartment, indicating that the killing may have been premeditated.
“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.
Family asks for justice
Saturday gathered that after Thompson was killed, the suspects fled Awoyaya and took refuge at their parents’ residence in Ikorodu.
Onyibe added that they had earlier disposed of the body in a canal in Awoyaya before relocating, 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. Tragically, 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. 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.
A copy of the ‘Release of Corpse’ letter seen by Saturday and addressed to the Medical Director, Mainland General Hospital, Yaba, was dated April 28, 2026.
The letter, which was signed by the Office of the DPO, Nigeria Police Station, Elemoro Division, Ibeju-Lekki, requested the hospital to release Thompson’s corpse to his family through his elder sister, Precious Adebayo, for burial rites.
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, triggering Thompson’s immediate relatives to break down uncontrollably.
“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.
When Saturday reached out to Onyibe, she said Thompson’s traumatic death had a profound impact on the entire family. “Thompson’s burial will be held on Thursday,” she stated.
An earlier murder
When detectives searched through the mini-flat where Thompson was gruesomely murdered, the discovery of a female dress led the police to believe it was not the only brutal killing that had taken place in the house.
According to the CP, Fatai, during questioning, the suspects confessed that Thompson was not their first victim. The duo had also murdered a lady who was Ogenata’s girlfriend in November 2025.
Fatai said, “Investigations revealed that they had earlier kidnapped and murdered a female victim on November 30, 2025. The victim was a girlfriend of one of them.
“They contacted her parents and demanded ransom. After collecting the N300,000, they still went ahead and murdered the lady,” he added.
Explaining the motive behind the murder, Ogenata said, “She was a hook-up girl, and at the time, I needed money to get a new PC for myself, and my friend (Emmanuel) had an easy-buy phone, and he said the payment was beginning to choke him, so we thought of that girl. She was the easiest person at that time.”
The suspects admitted that they had dumped the victim’s body just a few metres from the house. This led to the arrest of a nearby resident, who was subsequently charged with the murder and is currently awaiting trial in a state correctional facility.
Meanwhile, Fatai stated that the suspects in the Awoyaya killings would be arraigned in court once investigations are concluded.
‘Youths here need intervention’
A resident of Awoyaya, who preferred to be identified as Dimeji Okanlawon, pointed out that many youths in the area are involved in cultism and drug use, which he said could significantly contribute to the rate of violent crimes.
“If you ask around about Awoyaya and even the Ajah axis, you will find out that many young people are involved in cults here, even within some secondary schools, so human lives mean nothing to them. There have been instances where security operatives have had to intervene to stop bloody cult clashes in this area.
“I also see a high rate of unemployment, cybercrime, and drug use. The authorities and the state government need to take action before it is too late. All these dangerous and irresponsible young people in the area can kill anybody for money, so there is much intervention needed here,” Okanlawon told Saturday .
Commenting on this, the Principal Counsellor at U&I Klinique, Babatunde Oladipupo, explained that, at the individual level, many at-risk youths need structured psychosocial support, including counselling, trauma-informed care, and mentorship.
“Like the suspects in these murders, a number of these youths have been exposed to violence early, which can normalise aggression. Programmes that teach conflict resolution, emotional regulation, and decision-making can make a measurable difference.
“On the economic side, idle time and lack of opportunity are major drivers. Expanding vocational training, apprenticeships, and small business support helps redirect energy into something productive. At the community level, there should be interventions by faith-based organisations, youth groups, and neighbourhood associations to run after-school programmes and provide safe spaces.
“At the family level also, parents need to watch over their children, know the kind of friends they keep, and warn them that the outside world can be unsafe. They should always disclose where they are going and ensure that the location feature on their phones is turned on when visiting a friend,” Oladipupo advised.