Shocker: Four Policemen Arrested For Ritual Murder, Dump Corpse In Abandoned Pit
Four policemen attached to the Federal Highway Patrol Unit of the Nigerian Police, Aba/Azumini section, Abia State have been detained over alleged ritual murder.
The police team led by Hyginus Omeze, were alleged to have murdered one Onyekachi Chukwu, aged 26, dissected him and collected some of his vital organs for ritual purposes.
Trouble was said to have started for Omeze and his team when they got a distress call to a location at Nwaobasi All Saints Estate, Ogbor Hill and arrested Onyekachi.
Pointblanknews.com gathered that on Sunday June 23, Onyekachi, a native of Ahaba Imenyi in Isuikwuato local council who lived at No. 47 Ukaegbu Road, Ogbor Hill, Aba went out with his friends to drink at a hotel located at City Global hotel on Ekenna Avenue.
After spending the day, Onyekachi who was said to have been heavily drunk decided to pass the night at the house of one of his friends in resident at the Nwaobasi All Saints Estate in Ogbor hill.
According to a resident of the area who preferred anonymity, 'When the boy got to the house, he started banging at the gate and shouting the name of his friend, Ifeanyi with whom he had gone out earlier to drink with.
The bangs at the gate attracted the attention of the residents including his friend, Ifeanyi's wife. When Ifeanyi's attention, who was not yet home as the time at 2.00am, was called to the situation, he was said to have called his neighbours and his wife through phone call that Onyekachi is not a thief and but was drunk and should be taken care of.
The source hinted that another resident, a nurse simply known as Ezinne Sunday, alleged to a girlfriend to the policemen of the Federal Highway Patrol, made a call to them.
The policemen stormed the area and found the boy drunk and started beating him with gun butt and later took him to their base at unnamed hotel at Opobo road area of Ogbor Hill which serves as their base
The policemen, who were said to have refused appeals by residents of the area arrested Onyekachi and a tenant as well as a caretaker of the house and took them to the same hotel.
On getting to the hotel, Pointblanknews.com gathered that the policemen left the other two men behind with the gate man of the hotel and took Onyekachi out in their new Prado patrol jeep and drove towards Azumini.
After about one hour, the policemen were said to have returned to the hotel without Onyekachi whom they went out with.
According to sources at the hotel, as they came back to the hotel, the police men collected the men they had earlier left behind and took them back to the Nwaobasi All Saints Estate residence and ordered the occupants of the house to contribute money for them to replace the bullets and petrol which they claimed they had wasted and the people complied without actually knowing what the policemen did.
The lid later blew open when Onyekachi's relations after two days of searching for him without success made formal complaint to the Ogbor Hill Division of the Nigerian police at Azuka Drive who swung into action and traced their colleagues who committed the dastardly acts to the Rowmay hotel where four of them were arrested.
The DPO of the Ogbor Hill Division was said to have re-arrested the two occupants who were returned to their house by the Federal Highway Police who spilled the beans and where they parted ways with the late Onyekachi.
The gatemen of the hotel who was also arrested later identified the 4 policemen who drove the boy away, but returned without him.
An elder brother to the late Onyekachi, Uchechi alleged his brother was killed for ritual purposes.
'They arrested somebody who was drunk, instead of taking him to a police station, they took him to a hotel, is that the way to do police work? Is the hotel now a police station? An innocent boy was killed without offence by the Federal Highway Police. Onyekachi was killed for ritual purposes.
This is why they didn't allow any member of the family to see his body. My brother's blood was crying for justice. We are calling on the Inspector General of Police and Gov. Theodore Orji to ensure that justice is done so that Onyekachi will not die in vain.'
Uche expressed gratitude to the Aba Area Commander, ACP Rabiu Dayi without whose efforts the killers of his brother would have gone scot free. He described the Aba Area Commander as one of the shinning lights of the Nigerian Police.
Police sources hinted that the arrested policemen later took their colleagues to an abandoned borrow-pit located on the outskirts of Akpaa Mbaato community along the Aba/Azumini Highway where the dismembered and decomposing body of Onyekachi was found placed on top of a roofing shit before being allegedly dissected. A police source who was part of the visit to the abandoned borrow-pit said human skulls, bones, hand gloves, sheets of zinc and metal were seen on the site, stressing that it was an ugly sight to behold.
Reacting to the allegation of the Onyekachi being killed for ritual purposes, Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), Abia command, ASP Geoffrey Ogbonna who confirmed the incident, denied reports that he was killed for ritual purposes.
'It could be as a result of the way bullets pierced his body that made his relations think the young man was murdered for rituals, but I assure you there was nothing like that.'
Ogbonna said the four suspects involved in the dastardly act are undergoing interrogation after which the law would take its course, stressing that police men are meant to protect lives and property, not to kill innocent people.