Police have charged Tyrese Haspil, the personal assistant of Gokada founder Fahim Saleh, with murder of the tech CEO in his Manhattan apartment in New York.
NYPD Chief of Detectives Rodney Harrison said during a brief news conference on Friday that Mr Haspil, 21, was charged with second-degree murder over the gruesome killing and dismemberment of Mr Saleh inside his N852.5million East Houston Street apartment.
It is believed that the motive involved a broken promise to repay $100,000 in stolen cash.
According to Mr Harrison, New York Post reports, Haspil worked as Saleh’s “executive assistant” and handled the international entrepreneur’s “finances and personal matters”.
“It is also believed that he owed the victim a significant amount of money,” he added.
Saleh, 33, founded Gokada in 2018 – a Nigerian motorcycle ride-sharing company that recently transitioned into a delivery service – and made Haspil the chief of staff at the firm.
It is believed that Haspil defrauded his boss of $100,000 but was not reported after Saleh discovered it. Saleh instead brokered a repayment plan with Haspil. It is unclear when this occurred.
“This was an act of charity that turned into an act of murder,” a source was quoted saying.
Haspil is said to have been linked to the murder through evidence recovered from a Taser believed to have been used to incapacitate Saleh.
The former PA is also said to have used Saleh’s credit cards to make purchases to clean up the killing.
Surveillance video allegedly shows him going in and out of the store.
The police chief Harrison said Haspil allegedly attacked Saleh with the Taser at 1:45 pm on Monday while Saleh was getting off an elevator that opened directly into his apartment.
He added that police learnt of the killing the next day after Saleh’s butchered remains were found when a cousin went to check on him.
Hofstra University says Haspil dropped out after his freshman year.
“He was very private with his life because I think he had a rough childhood,” a former schoolmate and friend said of him.
