The murder was planned by Mr. Audu Joseph, the primary suspect and late Justice’s nephew, according to the police.

Four people have been detained by Benue State police in connection with the murder of Late Justice Margaret Igbetar, a former president of the Customary Court of Appeal, whose decomposing body was discovered on August 24, 2023.

Bartholomew Onyeka, the police commissioner for Benue, said this while addressing journalists in Makurdi, claiming that Mr. Audu Joseph, the primary suspect and the late Justice’s nephew, planned the murder.

He claimed that to get access to her and stab her repeatedly in the chest, Joseph hired a man named Dzungwenen Ukor, who collaborated with the Late Justice’s gateman and driver.

Speaking to journalists, the main suspect said that his actions—which were motivated by his late aunt’s refusal to provide him the land title paperwork that belonged to his late father after numerous unsuccessful family interventions—were now regrettable.

Then he turned to self-help, murdering Justice in order to take the papers from her Makurdi house.