Police personnel attached to the Intelligence Response Unit have arrested three siblings for the gruesome murder of a mother of five, Mrs Janet Ogbonnaya, The PUNCH reports.
The deceased, a widow, was lured from Facebook by the suspects, who allegedly poisoned her and buried her corpse in a septic tank in a house in the Wumba District, Lokogoma, Abuja, on May 14, 2020.
The suspects, Johnson, 38; Gideon, 31; and Success Emmanuel, 27, were tracked down to their home town, Isiekenesi, in the Ideato Local Government Area of Imo State, where they were hiding after killing Ogbonnaya in Abuja.
The arrest of the suspects was sequel to the complaint received from one Chinedu Ogbonnaya, who alleged that his 55-year-old mother, a native of Ozuitem in the Bende Local Government Area of Abia State, had been kidnapped and N5m ransom was being demanded by her captors.
According to the Force Public Relations Officer, DCP Frank Mba, painstaking investigation by the police resulted in the arrest of the suspects, who in the course of interrogation, revealed that the victim had been murdered and buried.
It was gathered that the victim was a Facebook friend of the principal suspect, Johnson, who lured her from her home in Gwagwalada to visit him.
Mba said in a statement on Thursday, “The suspects, thereafter, took advantage of the visit, served her yoghurt laced with drugs and subsequently had her murdered.
“The suspects buried her remains in a septic tank, then went ahead to reach out to the family of the victim, using her phone, and demanded N5m ransom as pre-condition for her release.
“The suspects led a team of investigators and pathologists to a residence in the Wumba District, Lokogoma, Abuja, where the victim’s decomposing body was exhumed from the septic tank.
“The body has been taken to the University Teaching Hospital, Gwagwalada, for forensic examination.”
The police added that a Toyota Highlander SUV belonging to the deceased had been recovered at a mechanic workshop in Apo, where it had been repainted into a different colour.
The force noted that the vehicle documents had also been fraudulently changed and the ownership criminally transferred to Johnson.
Investigation further revealed that the house, where the deceased was killed and buried, originally belonged to one of the suspects, but it was hurriedly sold off to a third party, apparently to conceal the evidence of their evil action.
While commending the operatives for a job well done, the Inspector-General of Police, Mohammed Adamu, stated that “the perpetrators of any form of crime in the country will not go undetected and unpunished.”