Posted by From HENRY CHUKWURAH, Portharcourt on
It was a bloody weekend in Port Harcourt as two persons, including a mother of four, were killed in two separate incidents.
• Housewife clubbed to dead by gateman
• Gunman kills one, injures 8
It was a bloody weekend in Port Harcourt as two persons, including a mother of four, were killed in two separate incidents.
The housewife, Mrs Esther Ebomodi, an international businesswoman, was clubbed to death by the gateman her family hired barely six days before her gruesome death.
In the second incident, a gun man in a black Mercedez Benz 190 rode to a spot near the Mile Three Market, along Ikwerre Road, and opened fire on a group of people sitting outside the house, killing one and wounding eight others.
Briefing reporters on Sunday in his office, the Commissioner of Police, Mr. Bala Hassan, said the gateman who was employed six days earlier by the Ebomodis conspired with three others to kill and rob Mrs Ebomodi while her husband was away. The commissioner said the suspect was arrested late Saturday night while escaping with the woman's Toyota Avensis jeep with registration Number Lagos LVO3AAA and 7, 900 US dollars as well as household property parked inside the car.
He said that the 27-year-old suspect attempted to bribe the 10 Mobile policemen on duty but the police team rejected his offer and arrested him, a feat that has earned the policemen led by an Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP), Mr. Ilori Olutayo, a commendation from the Inspector General of Police and N100,000 award. Answering question from journalists, the suspect, Zecharia Dauda, said he was talked into the crime by the other three men who also work near his employers residence in the highbrow 'Cocain Village" in the Capital city.
He said the other suspects who have also been rounded up had told him few days after he was employed that his madam travels abroad and has lot of foreign currencies. Dauda said that convinced on the callous plan hatched by three of them, he went into the house and met her preparing pap. He said he offered to assist her but she refused and he walked back to his colleagues outside. 'When I come back, I see my madam bend down I come use the iron when dey for my hand to hit her for head from back; she come fall." Having confirmed her dead, the trio went into the woman's room and helped themselves to the bundles of dollars, part of which was found on the suspect when he was arrested at the Imo River boundary as he attempted to escape to Aba in the deceased car.
Just about 9.20 pm when the cocaine village murder was going on, a suspected assassin driving in black Mercedez Benz car stopped at No. 182 Ikwerre Road near the Mile Three Market and opened fire on some persons sitting outside. One of the targets died while eight others were seriously wounded.
Police spokesperson, Mrs Rita Inoma-Abbey, who hinted that two persons, including a gateman, have been arrested in respect of the kidnap of a three-year-old boy, Master Obinna Anyanwu at the Woji Estate recently.