Four policemen attached to the Federal Highway Patrol Unit of the Nigerian Police, Aba/Azumini section, Abia State have been arrested and detained over alleged ritual murder.
The policemen led by Hyginus Omeze, were alleged to have murdered one Onyekachi Chukwu, generator mechanic aged 26, dissected him and collected some of his vital organs for ritual purposes.
Information made available to 247ureports.com revealed that on Sunday June 23, Onyekachi, a native of Ahaba Imenyi in Isuikwuato local government area who lived with his brothers at No. 47 Ukaegbu Road, Ogbor Hill, Aba went out with his friends to drink at a hotel located at Ekenna Avenue.
After the drinking spree, Onyekachi decided to pass the night at the house of one of his friends in resident in the Ogbor hill area.
According to a resident of the area who spoke on the condition of anonymity, when the boy got to the house, he started knocking at the gate and shouting the name of his friend which whom he had gone out earlier to drink with.
The shout at the gate woke up residents including the wife of his friend. When the attention of his friend who was not yet home as the time, was called to the situation, he was said to have informed 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 added that it was at this juncture that another resident made a call to the policemen of the Federal Highway Patrol living at Rowmay Hotels, Ogbor Hill who came and found the boy drunk, started beating him with machete and gun butt and later took him to their base at the hotel.
The policemen, who were said to have refused appeals by residents of the area arrested Onyekachi together with the gate man of his friend’s house and the caretaker and took them to the same hotel.
On getting to the hotel, 247ureports.com gathered that the policemen left the other two men behind in the hotel and took Onyekachi out in their patrol jeep and drove towards Azumini.
After about 45 minutes, the policemen were said to have returned to the hotel without the boy 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 from where they arrested them and ordered the occupants of the house to contribute money for them to replace the bullets which they claimed they had wasted and the people complied without actually knowing what the policemen did.
The bubble burst when Onyekachi’s relations after days of searching for him without success made formal complaint to the Ogbor Hill Division of the Nigerian police who swung into action and traced their colleagues who committed the dastardly acts to the Rowmay hotel where four of them were arrested.
An elder brother to the late Onyekachi, Uche Chukwu alleged his brother was killed for ritual purposes.
“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 corpse. 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,” he lamented.
He expressed gratitude to the ACP Dayi without whose efforts the suspects would have never been found.
Police sources hint that the arrested policemen later took their colleagues to a abandoned borrow-pit at Akpaa Mbaato community along the Aba/Azumini Highway located at a dangerous area called ‘no man’s land’, , where the dismembered and decomposed body of Onyekachi was found placed on top of a roofing shit before being allegedly dissected.
When contacted, Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO) of the Abia state command, ASP Geoffrey Ogbonna who confirmed the incident, denied reports that Onyekachi 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.”
He said the four policemen 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.
