Three suspects connected to the death of an official of the Independent National Electoral Commission in Anambra State, Mr Osita Duruoha, have been arrested by the State Police Command.
The suspects; Nwobodo Obumneme, Malachi Uzorchukwu and Ifesinachi Ogechukwu were paraded by the Commissioner of Police in the state alongside several suspects of various offences on Friday.
Confessing to the crime, one of the suspects, Obumneme, aged 26, said the late INEC staff was strangled by the syndicate with the aim of dispossessing him of his shuttle bus.
Obumneme said, “We hired him to use his shuttle bus to take us to Urum from Ifite; our intention was to steal his bus, but later we had to strangle him to take the bus.”
Duruoha, before his death, was declared missing in September, but his body was later found by the roadside, in the Isuaniocha community in Awka North Local Government Area of the state.
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Also, one of the suspects paraded for killing his stepmother said he committed the crime because the deceased refused to give him N1m for school fees.
Ekenedilichukwu Okeke confessed to killing Theresa Okeke, an accountant with the National Population Commission in Awka on September 28, 2022 with the help of his gang.
The suspect said, “I had a problem with my stepmother. I wanted her to give me N1m but she refused. After I pleaded with her, she agreed to give me the money but she later changed her mind. So, I had to arrange with some of my friends to help me extract the money from her. They came at night and tied her hands and legs in order to force her to give me the money. But in the process, she stopped talking and before we knew it, she was dead.”
One of Ekenedilichukwu’s accomplices, while telling his side of the story said, “Ekenedilichukwu called me that I should help him extract N1m from his stepmother to enable him to pay his school fees in the university.
“When we got to his stepmother’s house at about 2am, one of the guys tied the woman’s hands and legs and when she wanted to shout, I personally covered her mouth and I called the other man to bring something to tie her mouth. After tying her mouth, she stopped breathing and we had to rush out.”
He added that they could not get any money from the woman before she died as she did not give them her bank details.
While briefing journalists, the Commissioner of Police, Echeng, said suspects would be charged to court.
The CP said the command in collaboration with vigilantes in the state also arrested four suspected electricity equipment vandals and thieves.
He called on criminal elements in the state to leave, vowing that they would be hunted down.