The Police have confirmed the killing of a delivery man with Jumia, an online marketing outfit, Mr. Chukwuma Eleje, in a house on Ada George Road, Port Harcourt, Rivers State where he had gone to deliver two iPhones to some customers.
The customers who had ordered the phones through the Internet last weekend, after killing him on Saturday, dumped his remains in a septic tank in a desperate attempt to cover up the crime.
However, operatives of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad who were said to have been alerted by residents swooped on the suspects in their apartment on Monday.
DSP Nnamdi Omoni, Rivers State Police PRO who confirmed the incident, said the suspects – Sodienye Mbatumukeke, Excel Naabe, and Joy Eluwa, after being arrested, confessed to the crime.
He said, “Operatives of SARS, acting on credible intelligence on Monday, at about 3am arrested three suspects– two males and a female – identified as Sodienye Mbatumukeke, Excel Divine Naabe, and Joy Eluwa.
“These armed robbers ordered Smartphone’s from a certain courier company in Rivers State. Then the company sent the phones through a dispatch rider. On getting there, the hoodlums beat up the dispatch rider and later shot him; he died inside their flat.
“After killing him, they threw his corpse into a septic tank. Our men, who were acting on credible intelligence, arrested the suspects and they showed us where they hid the corpse.”
Omoni added that the state Commissioner of Police, Zaki Ahmed, who led other senior police officers to the scene, appealed to members of the public to always share information with the police.
The two prime suspects, however, passed the bulk to each other.
Naabe, who claimed to be on a visit, said he saw Mbatumukeke pushing the deceased into the septic tank.
He said, “On my way to this place, I saw him (Mbatumukeke); he was packaging something like a black waste bin. He was saying I should just go inside and chill out. He said he would soon join me in the room.
“I overheard some neighbours asking him what he was doing close to the septic tank and he gave them an excuse. I went inside and saw bloodstains in the bathroom.
“When I queried him, he brought out a gun and pointed it at me, saying if I uttered a word about what I saw, he would kill all my family members.”
The second suspect, Mbatumukeke, claimed that Naabe killed the victim, adding that he hit the courier man with an iron on the head.
“He hit him with iron on the head and blood was gushing out. I was afraid; I was vibrating. I didn’t know what to do. God is my witness,” he added.
It was gathered that most of the tenants in the building began to leave the house after policemen recovered the corpse.
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