The Enugu State Police Command has arrested two undergraduates of the Ebonyi State University for killing a United States returnee lady, who was a benefactor to one of them.
The suspects, James Okoh, 26, and Uchenna Okefie, 27, are presently in the custody of the Anti-Kidnapping Squad were they are being held on suspicion of killing Mrs Stella Uhuo.
According to Sunday Sun quoting the deceased’s family, Uhuo was a great benefactor of Okoh, a final-year student of the university, whom she had helped financially, especially in paying his school fees.
Reports said she called Okoh to tell him she would be returning to Nigeria, and would need him to pick her up at the airport so that he could drive her to the Ebonyi state capital, Abakaliki.
Her mission in Abakaliki was to deliver some luggage given to her by friends in the US for onward passage to their family members back in Nigeria. The scheduled day of arrival was November, 14, 2015.
On that day, her family members came to the airport with a car and Okoh also came with a Volvo car with registration number Lagos EKY 855 CY.
While her personal luggage was loaded into the car brought by her family members, the luggage meant for friends’ families in Abakaliki were loaded into the Volvo car brought by Okoh and his friend, Okefie.
After the ritual of greeting family members, Uhuo was driven towards Abakaliki by Okoh in the Volvo car. While Okoh drove the car, Uhuo sat with him in the front seat while Okefie sat in the back seat.
On their way, Okefie reportedly grabbed the victim by the neck and placed a suffocating hold on her while Okoh hit her viciously on the head.
This happened after Okoh had diverted the car from the busy Enugu-Abakaliki road.
After strangling the lady, they reportedly dumped her body on the road, and made away with the dollar notes, clothes and iPad she brought with her from the US.
They were later able to exchange the dollars to get a naira equivalent of 850,000, and also shared the male clothes in her luggage between themselves, while they burnt the other clothes.
However, things went awry for them when by the next day, Uhuo’s brother had not seen nor received a call from her and he promptly lodged a missing person report at the police station.
Okoh was picked up at his hostel on January 29, 2016, and Okefie was picked up at his parent’s home in Ajaokuta, Kogi State on January 31.
The Commissioner of Police, Mr. Nwodibo Ekechukwu, said the duo will be charged to court on conclusion of investigation.