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#Post#: 327--------------------------------------------------
‘We killed, buried victim in shallow grave to conceal our leader
’s identity’
By: magbytes120 Date: June 29, 2017, 1:23 am
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[img]
HTML http://hl-img.peco.uodoo.com/intl-news/2017/06/d0e7e65943c8d773e242ad24f82ae2dd.jpg;,40,;3,510x[/img]
the suspects after exhumation of the victims body in the forest
It was a sorrowful and tearful scene last weekend when a kidnap
gang made shocking confessions on how they killed and buried
Mrs. Catherine Okorie Chukwu, a middle-aged mother of a rich
Abuja-based industrialist and indigene of Ishiagu community in
Ivo Council of Ebonyi State, who was abducted at her village
residence on January 18, this year.
But for the gallant efforts of men of the Special
Anti-Kidnapping Squad (SAKS), Ebonyi State Police Command,
Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) and other corresponding units
of the Command, who never rested until they unraveled
circumstances surrounding the abduction and later, murder and
secret burial of the victim, her case could perhaps have
remained like one of the many unresolved kidnap and murder cases
in the country.
The breakthrough, according to the Command’s Public Relations
Officer, Jude Madu, came on the heels of a classified
confessional statement made available to Police investigators by
one Ogbujule Chukwu Mathew of Lokpanta, Isuochi in Ummunneochi
Council of Abia State, who was arrested on February 10, this
year.
According to Madu: “He made some confessionary statement, which
led to the arrest of one Ezenwa Egeonu, male, of same address on
February 23. “On interrogation, the said Ezenwa confessed that
the victim has been killed by the gang and was buried at
Lokpanta, Isuochi in Abia State. He led a team of
anti-kidnapping squad of this Command to the scene where the
body was buried.
“The area has been identified, that was why the Command made
adequate arrangements for the exhumation of the body.”Ezenwa, it
was gathered, started playing pranks with the Police after his
confession and vital disclosures and became patently evasive for
weeks during attempt to make him take the anti-kidnapping team
where his men buried the victim.
“He took our men there and instead of showing the exact spot, he
started taking the Police round that vast bush until the early
morning of Sunday, when he said his time was up and he was then
ready to talk. “He then took our men to the exact spot where
they buried the woman,” Madu told The Guardian in an exclusive
interview.
The journey to the exhumation of the already-decomposed remains
of the late Mrs. Chukwu was a tortuous one. The state Police
Commissioner, Titus Lamorde, who was just settling down to his
new posting, made extensive efforts and preparations as soon as
the facts were established and delegated the Assistant
Commissioner of Police (ACP) in charge of Criminal
Investigations Department (CID) to lead the operation.
The journey, which involved a team of not less than 50
policemen, 15 Hilux vans of various units of the Command, an
ambulance, morticians, Head of Pathology Department, Federal
Teaching Hospital, Abakaliki, took over 10 hours.
When the search team took off from Abakaliki, with The Guardian
in the convoy, it stopped over Ivo Division to pick a ready SARS
team that was communicating with a team of the SAKS, who had
reportedly been in the forest for the past two weeks.
It headed off to Lokpanta, which shares boundaries with Ishiagu
in Ivo Council of Ebonyi State, almost directly across the road
along the Enugu-Port Harcourt Expressway.
After less than 10 minutes’ drive through terrains without
buildings located therein, the teams landed in a village market
called Eke Isuochi and picked someone that linked them up with
the SAKS first team some kilometres away from the market along a
major road leading to the forest. The man, in his late 30s (name
withheld), claimed to be leader of an association in Lokpanta.
On sighting the heavily-armed Police team, panicky village
traders at the market were gripped with apprehension.After
riding through a rough road of about three kilometres, the team
was successfully handed over after to a ready SARS team with the
prime suspect and two others, including a woman in her mid 40s.
The vehicles later came to a stop and the team, armed, not only
with guns, but also bags of water and some snacks, began the
search operation. Walking through a rough and barren forest in a
not-too-clearly distinctive boundary between Lokpanta in Abia
State and Awgu in Enugu State, which lasted for 25 minutes, the
team found itself in a carnal, called Lekpesi, a shallow river
nearly separating the two neighbouring states.
A jubilant combined team of SAKS with some SARS men, who had
been camped in the thick forest for about two weeks and were
reportedly feeding mainly on cashew nuts, welcomed the team.
With them were four suspects said to be directly or indirectly
linked with the dastardly act.
Then came the moment of confession. Ezenwa spoke first upon
interrogation: “That pally (pointing at one of the suspects)
carry us come here, me and Pilot. We be three, Mathew (the ring
leader) four and that Ampelo. We dey six in number. Na that
Ampelo (from Ishiagu) say make we kill am. En say because mama
(the victim) don see him face, make we kill am.
“I tell them say make them no kpai mama. The man come slap me
for back. Na en the other guy (Chibuike, the gang leader) say
him go shoot me. I tell dem say this thing wey dem wan do mama
no dey good. Na en dem come tell me say make I comot. I come go
up there go sit down (pointing to a hilly side of the shallow
river).
“As I come sit down there, I come hear kpowai. I dey like this
(pointing his head to the ground). Pilot come ask me whether I
dey cry? I tell am say I dey cry. I tell am say this thing wey
una do, before next week now, una go hear am. Na im I come carry
my machine (motorcycle) go back,” the suspect confessed.
He disclosed that they had tried to escape Police search by
hiding Mrs. Chukwu in Mathew’s backyard compound in Amaekwuru
village, Isuochi in Lokpanta for several hours and escaped into
the forest when they got information that the Police were on
their trail, where the victim was later shot dead on the orders
of the said Ampelo, who told the gang that he did internship in
Abuja through the help of the victim’s son and she had already
seen and identified his face; hence they should not spare her
life or they would all be in danger.
After the exhumation of the body for autopsy, the team was later
taken late in the evening to the said compound, where the
kidnappers kept the victim upon her abduction from Ishiagu, said
to be the gang-leader’s residence.
On arriving the village, which had been largely deserted due to
the serial criminal indulgence of young people from the area,
the Police were taken to the said backyard by Ezenwa, where they
made frantic search for the recovery of the exhibits to no
avail.
Ezenwa was heard repeatedly shouting that he would not lie to
the Police and knows the exact spot where the gun and bullets
were kept.Attempts to get the accurate information from the
gang-leader, Chibuike, were unsuccessful, as it was gathered
that he said he would rather die than disclose any vital
information.
The team returned to Abakaliki late in the night with the
exhumed body of the victim, which was deposited at the Federal
Teaching Hospital Mortuary, Abakaliki (FETHA) mortuary for
autopsy.
The Police team also impounded some exhibits, such as chairs and
other household items from the thoroughly ransacked premises of
Chibuike (popularly called Umoru), who community sources said
has been a ‘terror’ in their area and a torn in their flesh.
“We have taken the body for autopsy. The result of the autopsy
will determine our next line of action. We want to find out if
they killed the woman with bullet or poison or any other means,
even though one of the suspects confessed at the scene that one
of them shot the woman.
“After the autopsy, we shall also update the public,” Madu told
The Guardian.He said the entire village was on the run to avoid
giving the Police information, adding that out of the six
suspects directly involved in the kidnap, three kingpins were in
the Police custody.
“There are some other persons who are not among the six, but
they also contributed in one way or the other to aid this crime.
Though I may not give you the exact number for now, but others,
such as their native doctor, is already in our net.
“One of the girlfriends of Umoru, who had helped him to escape
the very first time, is also in our custody. “Investigations are
ongoing and the Police is assuring the family and the public
that it will get to the end of it all,” he added.
He further hinted that the suspects have not made confessions as
to whether a ransom was paid, but may have killed the victim
when they realised that Police tracking device was closing in on
them, coupled with the confession by one of the suspects that
the victim had identified one Ampelo, who did internship in the
son’s firm in Abuja and who ordered that they should shoot her.
News of the victim’s killing was said to have thrown the people
of Ishiagu, who had reportedly been at loggerheads with their
neighbouring Lokpanta village, into a deep mourning. Lamorde has
assured that the Command would do everything within its power to
ensure that all suspects linked to the dastardly act are brought
to book.
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