Collins Etaredafe
By Our Reporter
A musician, Collins Etaredafe, aka Top Boy, has gone into hiding after allegedly killing two-yet-to-be-identified Bureau-De-Change operators at his residence in the Lekki area of Lagos State.
PUNCH Metro gathered that Etaredafe, who was with a yet-to-be-identified friend, invited the BDC operators into his apartment under the guise of changing some dollars.
Following their entry into the building on Saturday, March 18, 2023, it was learnt that the BDC operators were allegedly killed and their corpses dumped in a drainage located at the front of Etaredafe’s residence.
A facility manager in the area, Paul Omotosho, while speaking with our correspondent, said the agent in charge of the building informed him that some neighbours, upon discovering the corpses in the drainage, traced some drops of blood to Etaredafe’s apartment.
Omotosho said, “I knew Etaredafe through his girlfriend, Evelyn, about three years ago when she contacted me that he needed an apartment. That was how he got my number. He called me, said he stays in Delta State, and that he wants to book a short-let apartment. That was how he became a regular client.
“Sometimes he would claim he does not know Lagos and will send money to my account to help him get some items and send them to him. In February 2022, he said he wanted to secure an apartment where his mum would be living in Lagos; he said he wanted to surprise her with the apartment as she has not been to Lagos before.
“I had to reach out to a fellow agent who assisted me in getting the apartment. After that, the agent sent me a form to fill in the details of the occupant but when I asked for the details of his mum, he said she did not have any means of identification. Out of the trust I had for him as a regular client, I foolishly provided someone’s details to keep the place for him and since then, my thinking is that his mother had moved in.”
Omotosho said he was at home when the agent in charge of the apartment where Etaredafe had been living in the place of his mother, called to inform him that the musician had allegedly killed the BDC operators.
He said, “The agent called me that Etaredafe had killed two people in his apartment. He also said he dumped their corpses outside the gate and ran away.
“The agent said the blood of the deceased victims was traced to his apartment and later discovered that the people the musician killed were Bureau-De-Change operators. I was told he invited them to his apartment because he wanted to change dollars before killing them.”
In a bid to locate Etaredafe’s whereabouts, Omotosho said he contacted his girlfriend who said she did not know any address of his relatives.
He said, “She later called me on Monday and asked if I heard that Etaredafe killed two people in his house and ran away. She said they only met on social media and she does not know where he or his family lives.”
PUNCH Metro gathered that a video of the corpses being recovered from the drainage was recorded and released online.
In the video viewed by our correspondent, a voice in the background was heard lamenting over the events that led to the death of the victims.
“This Topboy threw these two men outside the gate of the estate after he killed them. He called himself an artiste,” the voice partly said.
However, during an investigation by the policemen attached to the State Criminal Investigation Department, Yaba, Omotosho was invited for questioning on Friday.
The facility manager, after visiting the SCID, was detained alongside two other agents that helped him to secure the apartment for Etaredafe.
The state Police Public Relations Officer, SP Benjamin Hundeyin, confirmed the incident.
He said, “The main suspects are on the run. No part of the deceased victims’ bodies was cut off. The case is at the SCID and is progressing. The security man is in custody and is assisting with the investigation.”
