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Okija saga: Police to name wanted suspects
By Chris Agbambu
(Abuja)
And Okey Maduforo
(Awka)
Police authorities say
they will announce the names of the 11 suspects implicated in the Okija shrine
murders when Inspector General of Police (IGP) Tafa Balogun returns from the
town on Thursday.
He left Abuja on
Tuesday evening en-route Enugu to assess the situation. He was accompanied by a
retinue of detectives investigating the killings.
Balogun’s visit
to Okija has ignited fear as the residents suspect that more arrests may be
carried out. Most of the men who had returned to the town have again fled their
homes.
Police sources
disclosed on Tuesday that the 11 suspects are those implicated by Chukwumeze
Obed Igwe in his petition to the IGP complaining about the ritual murders.
One of them,
Bartholomew Ndukwu alias “Bato”, whose father Eddymmo Ndukwu and
his brother Osita Ndukwu are currently being detained by the police, went into
hiding as soon as he heard of their arrest.
However, the Anambra
State police command has dismissed reports that two of the 10 registers
containing the names of patrons of the shrine have been removed by unknown
persons.
State Police Public
Relations Officer Kolakpo Shofoluwe described the claim as one of the plans by
some people to “discredit the success story of the police on the Okija
shrine”. None of the registers has been tampered with, he insisted.
The police officer who
led the raid on the shrine, Gabriel Haruna, told reporters in Awka that the
registers have been sent to Abuja.
Rumours that some of
them went missing came on the heels of an alleged lobby at the police force
headquarters in Abuja by some politicians from Anambra State that the names in
the registers should not be made public.
Strengthening the
rumour is the allegation of the traditional ruler of Enugu Agidi that in the
past he had petitioned the then police commissioner on activities at the shrine
but that nothing was done to bring the perpetrators to book.
But reacting to
reports that Anambra State Governor Chris Ngige may be quizzed over his alleged
visit to the shrine, his Senior Special Assistant (Media and Publicity) Fred
Chukwuelobe said the idea is “baseless and smacks of plans to lampoon the
governor”.
He insisted that Ngige has no hand in the shameful reports
about the shrine.
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