Suspects Confess to Murder of Lagos UTME Candidate

Elijah Emmanuel, 23, and Toni Ogeneta, 21, confessed to the abduction and murder of 17-year-old Thompson Adam, a candidate for the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME), in Lagos. The incident occurred on April 22, 2026, when the suspects lured Adam, a secondary schoolmate, to a location where they planned to intimidate him.

During the attack, they used weapons including a cutlass and a chain to threaten Adam, who was forced to sit down. They recorded a video of the assault and ultimately strangled him to prevent exposure.

After the murder, they placed his body in a bag and disposed of it in a remote area. The suspects were arrested on April 27, 2026, following credible intelligence.

Lagos State Police Command's Fatai Tijani disclosed that the suspects were also linked to an earlier crime involving the murder of a female victim in November 2025, for which they had collected a ransom of N300,000 before killing her.