Unknown assailants have killed a 70-year-old trader identified as Alhaja Kadijat Olamilekan Falekulo, in Ondo State.

According to a report by the state-owned newspaper, the incident occurred in the Sabo area of Ondo town this week. 

It was gathered that the killers came to her residence under the guise of buying foodstuffs.

According to the 97-year-old mother of the deceased, her daughter thought the gunmen wanted to buy foodstuffs and as she came out to attend to them, they brought out a cutlass and macheted her on the neck.

The deceased’s mother, who preferred to speak under the condition of anonymity, said that she begged the killers to spare her daughter and kill her, but they refused. She said they later ransacked her room and made away with her jewelry.

"I saw the people when they came and I begged them to kill me and let my daughter go but they insisted that it was Alhaja they wanted to kill and they cut off her neck and set her room ablaze,” she said. 

Also speaking, a neighbour, Mrs. Gladys Fasominu explained that late Alhaja told her last week that some people came to her house and carted away her gold and beads.

“I was called to come and carry Alhaja to the hospital, on getting there I saw Alhaja in the pool of her own blood in her room. We can’t explain how she was killed now because after killing her they wet the room with petrol and set it on fire. It was the smoke that woke other people in the house up only what we can think of for now is to pack her lifeless body to the morgue,” she explained.

The case was later reported at Fagun divisional police station. 

The police have evacuated the corpse from the house to the morgue.