US gave Nigeria time frame to find Olugbenga Owolabi’s killers — Family

Ayorinde Owolabi, the late hotelier Olugbenga Owolabi, who was killed in August after arriving in Nigeria to invest in the hospitality industry, has stated that the US is involved in the case.

Olugbenga was a resident of Maryland and a US citizen. He travelled to Nigeria and built a hotel in Ogbomoso, where he was born. The hotel was inaugurated in December 2021, but Olugbenga and Rachael Opadele, a staff member at his hotel, were kidnapped and killed a few months later, in July 2022.

On October 1, his funeral service was held at Maryland’s Trinity Life Church.

“The American government wanted evidence and they came down here to do a post-mortem. Another post-mortem was done in the US before the burial. The case was presented at the United Nations meeting which was just concluded,” Ayorinde told PUNCH.

“They have given the Nigerian government a time frame to get the perpetrators.”

According to him, the instruction was given to the Department of State Services. He noted that the US already know that herders were behind the killing.

Ayorinde added that the US Government took his brother’s body out of Nigeria and back to the US after obtaining a death certificate from LAUTECH.

No arrest has been made over the incident, he said.