By Tony Adibe
The Enugu State Police Command have arrested a native doctor and others for alleged murder and related offences.
NewsBits learnt that the native doctor was arrested for purportedly killing his own client while testing gunshot protection charm, otherwise known as bullet proof in local parlance.
It was gathered that the native doctor, who was identified as Odoh Emmanuel (male) aged 23, hails from Umuaram Village in Ikem autonomous community of Isi-Uzo Local Government Area of Enugu State. The Police in a statement issued by the Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), DSP, Daniel Ndukwe, explained that Odoh was arrested “for shooting and murdering his adult male client, one Onunze Benedict, of Eha-Amufu community in the same LGA.”
Ndukwe stated: “Preliminary investigation reveals that the suspect confessed to having used a locally-fabricated single-barreled gun to shoot and murder the said victim in his shrine at the mentioned location, while testing the gunshot protection charm, he had prepared for him.”
According to the PPRO, “the gun has been recovered, while further investigation is ongoing at the Homicide Section of the State CID Enugu.”
Meanwhile, the Commissioner of Police, CP Ahmed Ammani, fdc, has urged the personnel to remain focused on the fight to flush unrepentant criminal elements out of the State, while soliciting the continued support and cooperation of citizens of the State.
In a related development, Ndukwe further stated: “the following male suspects: Everest Ayokalam aged 48, Anayo Akakem aged 33, Iwuanyanwu Kelechi aged 32, Uchenna Iwuoha (a.k.a “Uchewinde”) aged 47 and Gospel Chimankpa Nnorom aged 32, all of Imo State, involved in the case of conspiracy, armed robbery, abduction, and attempted murder, have been arraigned in court and remanded accordingly.
“They were arrested at Ikeduru in Imo State on 12/11/2022, through the concerted efforts of Police Operatives serving in Isi-Uzo Police Division of the Command and their counterpart in Imo State Command, after acting on credible information/intelligence.
“The suspects and others at large, armed with machetes and other weapons, had on 09/11/2022 at about 3.am, abducted at Umuhu in Isi-Uzo LGA (a border community between Enugu and Ebonyi States), the driver and conductor of a Sino Truck, said to be loaded with 900 bags of cement and en-route Abakaliki, Ebonyi State.
“They took them to the forest, beat up and tied them to a tree, and thereafter made away with the truck and bags of cement therein. The suspects confessed to the crime, while the truck was recovered alongside 789 bags of the cement from the warehouse of Everest Ayokalam (the receiver of the robbed exhibits).”
The PPRO also recalled that: “On 05/11/2022 at about 4.am, a combined team of Police Operatives drawn from Awkunanaw Police Division, Operation Restore Peace and Safer Highway Patrol, with assistance from Neigbourhood Watch Group, arrested one Kasie Ani (male) aged 25, Tochukwu Igwe (male) aged 25, Felix Maduakonam (male) aged 24, Chidera Okoye (male) aged 21 and Jennifer Nwafor (female) aged 17.
Ndukwe disclosed that the arrest of the suspects followed the Police Team’s swift response to a distress call alleging that the suspects “blocked the road at the Garriki axis of Enugu/Port-Harcourt Expressway and were robbing travelers.”
According to him, four male suspects were consequently arrested, and the victims rescued, while the female suspect was arrested thereafter, for harbouring one of the male suspects. He outlined the exhibits recovered from the suspects to include: three mock guns that they used in the criminal operation, twenty one pieces of wrappers, clothes, phones, ATM cards and other valuables belonging to their victims.
He further explained that the arraignment of all the suspects shall be done once investigations are concluded.
