A suspect, Mr. Nwobodo Samuel Obumneme, has provided an explanation for the murder of Mr. Osita Duruoha, an INEC employee in Awka, in September of this year by his gang.
In order to take possession of Duruoha’s shuttle vehicle, the 26-year-old reportedly strangled him along with two of his gang mates.
After being reported missing in September, Duruoha’s body was eventually discovered on the side of the road near the hamlet of Isuaniocha in the Awka North Local Government Area.
Nwobodo was one of the numerous suspects paraded for a variety of offences on Friday at the police headquarters in Awka. He was displayed with two other 28-year-old members of his gang, Malachi Chinedu Uzorchukwu and Ifesinachi Ogechukwu.
“We hired him to use his shuttle bus to carry us from Ifite to Urum, and our purpose was to steal his bus, but later we had to strangle him and take the bus,” the suspect claimed.
In a press conference, Anambra State Police Commissioner Echeng Echeng said: “On September 28, 2022, a two-man gang of armed robbers who target shuttle buses in the Ifite-Awka area claimed to be passengers and boarded a shuttle operated by an INEC employee, Mr. Osita Duruoha, 43.
The two pretended to be travelling to Isu-Anaocha on an N3,000 agreement when they got on the shuttle bus at Ifite.
When the vehicle arrived at the remote Urum/Isu-Anaocha Road, the two ordered the driver to halt, and Chinedu Malachi, one of the suspects, who was sitting behind the driver, used a rope to strangle him from behind.
Then, they drove the shuttle bus to Enugu, where they intended to sell it, after disposing of the deceased’s remains in a nearby bush.
The culprits were captured in Enugu by State CID detectives, and the shuttle bus that had been killed was found.
The three suspects were identified as Nwobodo Samuel Obumneme, 26, Malachi Chinedu Uzorchukwu, 28, and Ifecchinachi Ogechukwu, 28. He said that they had now “admitted to the crime and would soon be charged to court.”
The commissioner also displayed a 20-year-old man who is accused of conspiring with his group to murder his stepmother, a National Population Commission employee, to steal one million nairas from her account after learning her password.
He stated: “One Mrs. Theresa Okeke, 54, an accountant with the National Population Commission in Awka, was brutally killed in her home at No. 4 Umuziocha, Awka, on September 28, 2022, at or around 02:00 a.m.
“As soon as the matter was reported, her stepson Ekenedilichukwu Okeke, 20, who shared a home with the dead, was taken into custody and questioned. He stated that his stepmother was murdered by armed thieves who broke into their home. But after being interrogated using intelligence, he ultimately admitted to the crime and identified his collaborators.
