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•How choirmaster stabbed, raped lady to death in Plateau
From Gyang Bere, Jos
Nemesis has caught up with a 29-year-old choirmaster, Friday Samson, who raped and killed 32-year-old Miss Ruth Bako on Saturday, December 10, 2022, in Farin-Gada, Jos North Local Government Area of Plateau State.
Ruth was returning home from work at 10pm on that fateful day when Friday, a father of two, accosted her and attempted to have carnal knowledge of her but she resisted vehemently. Friday refused to let her go as he mounted intense pressure on Ruth but later realized that the lady was stronger than he was.
This led to physical combat between the two and when Friday noticed that he could not subdue her, he removed a knive and stabbed her in her stomach. Ruth fell to the ground, crying and seeking help but no one was around to render assistance.
So, Friday pounced on the bleeding lady and raped her until she died. Even after she stopped breathing, he continued to pound her. The wicked man confessed that he continued to rape her even after she became motionless.
Weeks after, Friday decided to pick Ruth’s Android phone, which he had switch off after raping her to death. Believing that the matter was over, he switched on the phone in January 2023 and later sold it to one Ephraim Emmanuel, a fellow church member. He told Ephraim that the phone belonged to him.
Unknown to Ephraim, the phone was being tracked by police operatives from Laranto Division of the command, led by DCP Pam Dauda Ishaya. Emphraim was arrested with the phone and he told the operatives that he bought it from Samson, his choirmaster in church.
The police arrested Samson and paraded him at the police headquarters in Jos where he confessed to the crime. He spoke to Daily Sun, where he admitted to the crime and asked for mercy.
He said: “I was arrested because I raped and killed one Ruth. I decided to just have carnal knowledge of her. I wasn’t under the influence of anything or drug, but she resisted me. I had made up my mind that I would sleep with her that day. I didn’t know her before but I saw her for the first time on December 10, 2022, when she was returning from work.
“I was working in one of the filling stations at Farin-Gada, where I earned N28,000 monthly. I saw her at about 11pm when she was going home. I reguested to sleep with her but she refused and I decided to bring out my knife and stabbed her.
“It was when I stabbed her that she fell down and I slept with her until she died. When I discovered she was dead, I quickly cleaned up myself and left the scene until the following morning when people raised the alarm and protested.”
Samson, who said was a choirmaster with ECWA Church, confessed that it was out of sheer wickedness that he carried out the act, which has landed him in trouble and brought shame to his family and children.
Ruth, a graduate of the University of Jos, was said to have secured a job in Rayfield two weeks before her death. She closed late from work that day.
When her body was discovered the following day, relatives, neighbours and sympathizers who converged at the scene mobilized and registered their displeasure over the incident.
The killing of Ruth generated confusion in the entire Jos North LGA and youths within the suburb staged a peaceful protest against the barbaric act without knowing that the culprit was among them.
Samson said he stripped Ruth. After he finished raping her, he left her in a pool of blood until the police picked her body the following day.
Her body was released on Thursday, December 15, for burial. Her remains were laid to rest in her hometown, Rusau village, in Jos North, after a funeral service at St. John Catholic Church, Rusau.
The police public relations officer in the state, Alfred Alabo, who paraded Samson alongside other suspects at the police headquarters, said investigation was ongoing and he would be charged to court.
He noted that the police commissioner, Bartholomew Onyeka, has assured Plateau residents that no crime committed in the state would go unpunished.
“The command wants to assure the public that, as we continue to deal a devastating blow on criminal elements in the state, we will not relent in our efforts to get rid of repulsive and criminal-minded people in the state,” he said.
