- 4 policemen in trouble
The Inspector General of Police, Ibrahim Idris, has ordered the arrest and trial of four police officers for allegedly aiding the escape of some suspects held in custody over the death of a billionaire business man, Chief Innocent Ifeanyi Ofojee, The Point learnt.
The four policemen currently being detained at the Force Criminal Investigation Department cell in Abuja over the matter, our correspondent gathered, are Deputy Superintendent Abubakar, Inspector Yakubu, Inspector Sani and Assistant Superintendent of Police Williams Ngbem.
While Abubakar, Yakubu and Sani were said to have handled the investigation of the businessman’s alleged murder, Ngbem was saddled with the responsibility of keeping the fleeing suspects in custody.
The late mogul was said to have been killed and hurriedly buried in June last year under suspicious circumstances.
But shortly after his burial, tongues began to wag that the deceased businessman was allegedly poisoned by his wife, Mrs. Anastasia Oge Ofojee, aided by three other accomplices.
GENESIS OF INVESTIGATION
A non-governmental organisation, Crusade for Justice, took over the matter by forwarding a petition to the office of the Inspector General of Police at Louis Edet House, Shehu Shagari Way, Abuja.
The petition gave graphic details of the events that led to the death of the deceased billionaire.
Consequently, the IGP’s office directed the Federal Special AntiRobbery Squad to investigate the matter and submit a report, detailing their findings.
In the wake of the investigations, according to reliable sources, the wife of the deceased, Oge, was invited as a witness, by the police investigators at FSARS, to shed light on the circumstances surrounding the sudden death of her husband.
According to the sources, Oge gave her own account, which the detectives investigating the case, however, took with a pinch of salt.
But she was temporarily let off the hook while the search for clues about the businessman’s murder continued in earnest.
When the police team investigating the matter appeared not to be making any headway, and the interested parties in the matter became somewhat frustrated, once again, the office of the IGP was contacted and an order was given to the men and officers of the Force Criminal Investigations Department, Alagbon Close, Lagos, to take over the matter.
OGE FINALLY CONFESSES
Police sources disclosed to our correspondent that officers at the FCID went into the matter and re-invited the widow of the late businessman.
“She was methodically questioned to reveal all she knew about the death of her husband. The woman did not budge, insisting that she was innocent of the man’s death. Even when she was confronted with the allegation that she was known to have been having a secret love affair with one Ikechukwu Jonah Egeh, a.k.a. IK, who is 28 years younger, she still denied, saying that she had never come across such a name in her life.
“Unknown to the woman, detectives had gone a step further to scan through the account ledger of her late husband, whose properties were being swiftly sold like a bazaar by the widow and from where it was discovered that a sum of N40.5million was freshly transferred into the account of Ikechukwu Jonah Egeh. It was this damning discovery that confirmed her complicity in the matter,“ an inside source told our correspondent.
“It was at this juncture that Oge confessed to committing the crime and named other participants. It was the voluntary information reportedly given by the wife of the deceased that finally nailed the suspects. The woman did not only give graphic details, but also named the principal perpetrators,” he added.
OTHER PERPETRATORS ARRESTED
With the benefit of the latest information, detectives began a search for the suspects. The search was said to have taken them to Onitsha in Anambra State, and Lagos.
“In the course of the search, the principal suspect in the matter, one Mr. Ikechukwu Jonah Egeh, a.k.a. IK, who was already on the run, was finally arrested. Thereafter, the other suspects, Osita and John, were also arrested in different places,” a police source said. Our correspondent gathered that Ikechukwu Jonah Egeh, on his part, took the detectives through how the plan to assassinate the late businessman was hatched, and reportedly admitted his participation in the whole exercise.
The principal suspect told detectives that he was an active participant, adding that he was not acting alone, police sources said.
Egeh, our correspondent further learnt, reportedly named the widow of the deceased businessman and other collaborators, who he alleged, hatched the plans and executed them for cash reward.
IT WAS IN THE COURSE OF TAKING THE SUSPECTS THROUGH ANOTHER ROUND OF INTERROGATION AND, PERHAPS, MAKING ARRANGEMENTS TO TAKE THEM TO COURT TO ANSWER FOR THEIR ALLEGED CRIME THAT THEY ESCAPED FROM LAWFUL CUSTODY
ESCAPE FROM DETENTION
However, the joy of unravelling what had earlier been regarded as a difficult crime was short-lived when a team of police officers from Force Headquarters, Louis Edet House, Abuja, came into the matter.
They specifically came under the aegis of the IG Monitoring Team to take away the suspects and the exhibits to Abuja, citing an “order from above.”
It was in the course of taking the suspects through another round of interrogation and, perhaps, making arrangements to take them to court to answer for their alleged crime, that they allegedly escaped from lawful custody.
Suspecting a foul play in the matter, police authorities were said to have ordered the arrest of those officers whose responsibility it was, to ensure that the suspects remain in custody. The billionaire businessman, who until his death was the Chairman/Managing Director, Pierri Cardini Nigeria Limited, was killed under unclear circumstances in June 2016.
Since his death, there had been speculations as to the circumstances surrounding the incident. While some said he was injected with acid, having initially been poisoned with an overdose of cocaine, others speculated that he was killed by his wife’s secret lover.
Efforts by our correspondent to confirm the development from the Force spokesman, Chief Superintendent Jimoh Moshood, proved abortive as he did not pick calls made to his phone. Also, text messages sent to his mobile phone were not replied.
