Family slams police for abandoning probe into son’s murder

The grieving family of Mazi Ezuma Ukwu, whose 18-year-old son, Chinedu, was reportedly stabbed to death in the Arochukwu area of Abia State, has expressed outrage and criticised the Abia State Police Command for not thoroughly investigating the circumstances of the murder.

Our correspondent learnt from the family on Saturday that the command allegedly took the matter to court while two key suspects in Chinedu’s brutal murder —Promise Okorafor, who escaped from police detention, and David John, who had not yet been arrested— were still at large.

PUNCH Metro reports that three suspected cult members —Okorafor, John, and Chenemerem Nwosu— savagely murdered the 18-year-old boy on April 3, 2024, after he resisted being initiated into their cult.

Even though John allegedly fled the town after the incident, a PUNCH Metro report on May 3, 2024, detailed how local vigilantes and hunters collaborated on the night of the incident, successfully apprehended Nwosu and Okorafor just hours after the murder and turned them over to the police in the Arochukwu community.

The family, our correspondent learnt, had believed that transferring the case to the State Criminal Investigation Department at the Umuagu Command in Umuahia would prevent it from being overlooked.

However, they were dismayed when a police officer contacted them with the shocking news that one of the two suspects, Okorafor, had escaped during a jailbreak on April 14, 2024.

Dismayed that a murder suspect could escape from the command’s headquarters, the grieving mother, Agaodi Ezuma, accused the police of demanding a “sum of N100,000 to enable them to look for the escapee.”

In a prior conversation with our correspondent in May 2024, the spokesperson for the state police command, Maureen Chinaka, had confirmed the suspect’s escape, adding that efforts were underway to “re-apprehend the suspect.”

“About the information you requested, we are aware of the escape, and efforts are ongoing to pick up the suspect. Efforts are ongoing to re-apprehend the suspect; we will not start something we will not finish. With time, we will arrest the suspect,” she had said.

However, in a petition dated May 6, 2024, addressed to the Inspector General of Police, Kayode Egbetokun, and sighted by our correspondent on Sunday, the family accused the police of abandoning the investigation and rushing the case to court.

The petition partly read, “Our client is surprised that police officers, without any known investigation done on the matter, decided to charge the matter to court, hence this passionate appeal to your good offices to not only direct but also mandate the police officers to commence a diligent investigation of the matter forthwith to unravel the real identity of killers of our client’s son; and to bring the perpetrator of this wicked act of murdering our client’s son to book as justice delayed is justice denied, hence this passionate appeal.

“Sir, our client humbly appeals to you to use your good offices to approve this petition for a dispassionate and forensic investigation of our client’s son’s murder on April 3, 2024, by the Commissioner of Police, Abia State, so that the persons complained against will be brought to book. Our client is sure that a prima facie case will be established against the persons complained against, more so during this period when insecurity is now the order of the day in our society.”

When our correspondent contacted the command’s spokesperson on Thursday regarding the progress of the investigation and the family’s allegations against the police, she responded, “I will get back to you.”

A follow-up message was sent to her phone number on Saturday, but there was no response by the time this report was filed.

Meanwhile, in an interview with our correspondent on Saturday, the victim’s uncle, Mmere Ukwu, revealed that the suspects’ families had been asking the victim’s mother to drop the charges against the fleeing suspects. He also urged the authorities to ensure that the perpetrators were apprehended and prosecuted.

“The suspects’ parents have been asking the family to drop the case. We need the police to do their job. Despite handing over two of the three suspects, it is perplexing that one of them has escaped, and even more confusing that there has been no investigation into the matter,” he lamented.

The Force Public Relations Officer, Olumuyiwa Adejobi, did not respond to our correspondent’s inquiry on Sunday regarding the IG’s directives on the matter.