Enugu Police Command has arrested a suspect, Augustine Akor, 21, for allegedly raping and strangling to death his 16-year-old female relative, Faith Akuji.
In a statement issued by the command’s spokesman, DSP Daniel Ndukwe, on Friday in Enugu.
He said the incident happened on June 8 in a bush at Mpole-Ubere in the Ette community, within the Igbo-Eze North Local Government Area of the state.
It took the combined efforts of police operatives serving in the Igbo-Eze North Division of the Command, with assistance from the Neighbourhood Watch Group, to track Akor and arrest him on June 12 at about 9.30 a.m., Ndukwe informed.
“Preliminary investigation indicates that the victim had gone missing in the evening hours of June 8, after her grandfather sent her to grind cassava in the community centre, as all efforts made to trace her whereabouts proved abortive.
“Her decomposing body was, however, found in the bush following the arrest of the suspect.
“The suspect also confessed to having dragged the victim into the bush and forcefully had carnal knowledge of her, until she fainted and died in the process.
“The victim’s remains, found without any lower-body cloth, were evacuated to the hospital and confirmed dead by doctors on duty,” he said.
Ndukwe said that the case is currently undergoing further discreet investigation at the Homicide Section of the State Criminal Intelligence and Investigation Department (State CID) of the Command.
The command’s spokesman said the suspect would be arraigned in court upon the conclusion of the investigation.
He said that the Commissioner of Police, Mr. Ahmed Ammani, had consoled and sympathised with the family and friends of the deceased victim.
Ndukwe said the commissioner had described the act as “atrocious and unthinkable”.
“The commissioner has directed that the case be meticulously handled, concluded within recorded time, and charged to court for justice to be dispensed accordingly,” he added.
