Why I killed my victim — Medical doctor

Chioma Igbokwe 

The police have arrested a medical doctor, a hotel staff, Uber driver, and two others for the alleged murder of  a  businessman,  Chief Hyginus Odunukwe.

The suspects were arrested by the Zone 2 Police Command, Onikan,  Lagos.

The prime suspect to the alleged murder, Dr. Bob Ibeaji, gave a graphic account of how  he conspired with three others to kill Odunukwe at Artican Beach Resort, Ajah, Lagos, on December 1, 2019.

The police gave the names of Ibeaji’s accomplices as Igwe, 26, Cletus, 30,  and Obigaremu, 35.

Ibeaji, who claimed to have studied medicine and surgery in Edinburgh, United Kingdom, confessed that his motive for killing Odunukwe was to take over his landed property worth N900 million.

Ibeaji, who was paraded  by  Assistant Inspector-General of Police,   Zone 2, Ahmed Iliyasu, yesterday, said, “I killed Odunukwe, because I wanted to take his property worth N900 million. On that fateful Sunday afternoon, I invited Odunukwe   to Artican Resort Hotel,  to pay for the  landed property that he advertised on the social media. I instructed one of my boys to bring a bag for me. The reason for coming with the bag was to convince Odunukwe that I was carrying large amount of money.

“After he signed the documents of the building that I pretended that I was paying for, I told him to  come inside the hotel room so that I would give him the money. He followed me to the room. When he came inside  the room, I asked   him to hand the documents over to me, but he insisted that  I must  give him the money before he would part with the documents. At that point, one of my accomplices brought the bag that we used to convince him that was containing some money. As Odunukwe bent down to check the money inside the bag, I hit him on   his head with  an axe and he slumped. We dragged him to the toilet, injected him with sedative and he slept off. It was my intention to use the document to claim the property and later  sell it to another person.”

AIG Iliyasu, who narrated how the suspects were arrested, said: “Ibeaji, who claimed to be a medical doctor, is the kingpin of the syndicate.

“Investigation revealed that Ibeaji had been living big with  ill-gotten money for some time now. Two incidents that  have been established against him were that of a civil commissioner in Bayelsa State, Hon. Depologa, who was murdered and his body was  found along Abuja Expressway. This happened a week after his encounter with the victim at Ibeto Hotel, Abuja. During their discussion, Ibeaji  offered to give the victim N220million for a block of flats situated at Durumi, Abuja.”