Police Arrests 31-Year-Old Man For Murder of 49-Year-Old Lover
Operatives of the Intelligence Response Team, Force Intelligence Bureau of the
Nigeria Police, have arrested a middle-aged man identified as Edeh Tochukwu,
31, a native of Nara Unateze in Nkanu East Local Government Area of Enugu
State for culpable homicide.
He was said to have allegedly killed
his older girlfriend, Ijeoma Phyllis, 49, and stole her car, mobile phones,
and other properties.
The IRT revealed this in a statement
obtained by Punch correspondent on Tuesday night.
It said,
“Operatives of the DCP Olatunji Disu-led police team arrested the suspect in
Port Harcourt, Rivers State on Wednesday, November 2, 2022, after he fled from
the crime scene at Lugbe in the nation’s capital to squat with a single mother
who happened to be his new found lover.”
Interrogating the
suspects at the Guzape Abuja office of the intelligence team, the police
authorities said the suspect was arrested following receipt of credible and
reliable information about his movement.
The statement added, “The
suspect who said he studied and graduated from the Department of Mass
Communication, Federal Polytechnic, Nasarawa State and resides in Abuja before
the incident, added that the incident happened unintentionally on October 23,
2022, at the deceased’s apartment in Lugbe following a quarrel between them.
“He confessed to having used a pestle to perform the dastardly act
on that fateful day after the lady invited him to her house on the day of the
sad incident and started quarrels with him over his refusal to initiate
marriage proposals with her and sundry issues.
“According to him,
he got into a relationship with the older lady after they met at an event
during the Covid-19 lockdown around March 2020 and they started visiting each
other and the lady quickly started pressing him to marry her and gifted him a
High Lander Jeep to facilitate the union.
“He further said that he
was unemployed when the relationship started and had to go back to school to
read phonology before he later found a job at a private school as an
administrator and teaching staff before the killing of the late lover.”
Narrating how the murder was perfected, the police said Tochukwu
had allegedly refused to eat at the deceased’s residence during a visit
because he was avoiding her due to her character and the quarrels between
them, an action that led to her demanding that he returned the car gift, while
she picked the pestle to attack him after he refused to return the gift.
The police further stated, “He added that it was when he woke up
and found her with the pestle and he grabbed the object and overpowered her
and hit her with it and the deceased immediately fell down and started
shooting somebody helps me! somebody help me!! somebody help me!!! and he fled
the scene.
“Upon interrogation by the Disu-led police team on why
he allegedly made away with the deceased’s Toyota Corolla, iPhone, mobile
phones, and other personal effects before he was arrested by the police, he
said that it was because he didn’t want her to know where he is adding that he
didn’t envisage her death due to the assault.
“He added that he
quickly sold the Toyota Corolla car for N1.7 million two days after the
incident before he was arrested by the police team.”
The police
further noted that the deceased’s elder sister who pleaded anonymity, in her
testimony said she and her husband reported the matter at the Lugbe Police
Division after the caretaker of the house rented by the deceased called to
inform her of her sister’s disappearance.
“She also said that it
was herself, the police, and some friends of the deceased that forced Phyllis’
house open and recovered her decomposing body wrapped in rug carpet,” the
police added.
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