Posted by By Geoffrey Anyanwu, Awka. on
Former Anambra State Commissioner for Women Affairs, Chief (Mrs) Uzo Obi-Okoli was on Sunday allegedly murdered by her son.....
Former Anambra State Commissioner for Women Affairs, Chief (Mrs) Uzo Obi-Okoli was on Sunday allegedly murdered by her son.
Mrs. Obi-Okoli, founder of Tender Love Orphanage, Awka, and until her murder a director of the first indigenous refinery in Nigeria, Orient Petroleum Resources, which she midwifed when she was a special adviser to former Governor Chinwoke Mbadinuju on energy and petroleum, was killed in her bedroom by one of her sons, who just returned from aboard.
The young man, alleged to be a drug addict, was said to have fled the town in her mother's Mercedes Benz 500 SEL car, but was later arrested by the police in Lagos on Monday.
Husband of the deceased and father of the accused, Chief Obi-Okoli of the Bilante Construction Company, was said to have briefly visited home on Monday and returned to Abuja.
Confirming the incident to newsmen on Tuesday in his office, the Assistant Commissioner, State Criminal Investigation Department (CID), Awka, Muhammed Musa Katsina, said the principal suspect and son of the woman has been arrested.
According to Katsina, the matter, a homicide case, was reported to him at about 10am on Sunday morning by the Divisional Police Officer, B Division, Awka and he (Katsina), personally led a team to the scene of the crime, where he saw for himself what happened.
"One of the children of the deceased led me to the actual scene of crime, which is the deceased's bedroom. I saw her in a stiff condition and in a pool of her own blood. I managed the scene of crime and conducted a step by step observation, with the view to finding any clue that will help us establish the identity of the attackers," he said.
The CID chief said he conducted some preliminary investigation that assisted and led them closer to the suspects and picked some other clues that were being packed for forensic investigation.
"I asked of the co-occupants and demanded to know the bedroom of the son and on observation, I recovered a very important clue that led me to classify the woman's son as my principal suspect.
"I discovered, that he absconded immediately after the incident to unknown place with the mother's Mercedes Benz 500 SEL but because it was tinted, the security man could not identify the number of occupants. He was however, arrested in Lagos yesterday (Monday) morning; we are waiting for them to return to Awka."
Katsina added that they were waiting to ask him further questioning to find out if it was a group action or he did it alone, adding that the homicide people were working to recover the vehicle and weapon used.
One of the kinsmen of Mrs. Obi-Okoli told Daily Sun that the accused "has been a drug addict. He just came home from aboard and see what he has done. This is an abomination."