A 31-year-old man, Joshua Osaigbovo, has been arrested by the Edo State Police Command in connection with the death of his girlfriend, Osato Festus Edogiawerie, 21, whose disappearance was reported sometime in April 2025.
According to a statement issued by Moses Joel Yamu, chief superintendent of police, CSP, the Police Public Relations Officer of the Command, it all started when Mrs. Ojo, the mother of the deceased, filed a missing person report at Aduwawa Division on April 25, 2025.
She complained that her daughter, Osato, had left home on April 20 in the company of a friend and had not been heard from since then.
Yamu said the case was subsequently transferred to the State Criminal Investigations Department (SCID) for further action, “demonstrating the Command’s resolve to rid the state of all forms of crime and criminality”.
According to him, “Operatives of the Family Unit, through painstaking investigation and technical intelligence, arrested one Joshua Osaigbovo, 31 yrs, a resident of Iyanomon community in Ikpoba-Okha LGA in connection with the crime on 18th June 2025.
“During interrogation, the suspect confessed to inviting Osato to his residence on April 27. An altercation broke out between the two, during which Osato fell, hit her head on the ground, and died.”
Osaigbovo further confessed to taking the young woman’s body in a wheelbarrow to a nearby bush, where he buried her in a shallow grave a few metres from his home.
Yamu disclosed that “On June 20, 2025, Osaigbovo led police operatives to the burial site in the Iyanomon community”, where the remains of Osato Festus were exhumed following all necessary procedures.
The PPRP said the suspected murderer would be charged to court “as soon as investigations are concluded”.