Anambra police arrest suspected INEC official’s killers

The Commissioner of Police, Anambra State, Echeng Echeng, on Friday paraded no fewer than 20 suspects arrested in connection with various crimes in the state.

Among the suspects were three men, Nwobodo Obumneme, Malachi Uzorchukwu and Ifesinachi Ogechukwu, said to have been arrested in connection with the killing of an official of the Independent National Electoral Commission in the state, Mr Osita Duruoha.

The 26-year-old Obumneme told journalists that the gang strangled Duruoha with the aim of dispossessing him of his shuttle bus.

Duruoha, before his death, was declared missing in September, but his body was later found by the roadside, in the Isuaniocha community in Awka North Local Government Area of the state.

Confessing to the crime, Obumneme said, “We hired him to use his shuttle bus to take us to Urum from Ifite; our intention was to steal his bus, but later we had to strangle him to take the bus.”

Also paraded was one Ekenedilichukwu Okeke, who told journalists that he killed his stepmother, Theresa Okeke, for refusing to give him N1m for school fees.

The fifty-four-year-old Okeke, who worked as an accountant with the National Population Commission in Awka, was killed on September 28, 2022 by a gang of hoodlums, who invaded her house.

The suspect said, “I had a problem with my stepmother. I wanted her to give me N1m but she refused. After I pleaded with her, she agreed to give me the money but she later changed her mind. So, I had to arrange with some of my friends to help me extract the money from her. They came at night and tied her hands and legs in order to force her to give me the money. But in the process, she stopped talking and before we knew it, she was dead.”