Police arrest three over murder of Nsukka-based activist

BY CHINENYE OZOR
NSUKKA – The police in EnuguState have arrested three persons suspected to have taken part in the  murder of  Nsukka-based human rights activist and politician, Christopher Onah,  a.k.a. Papa Nsukka.

Reports said armed operatives from the homicide section of  the State Criminal Investigations Department stormed the university town in the early hours of Friday and arrested the suspects.

Vanguard gathered that the intervention of the detectives from Enugu  police headquarters followed complaints from relatives of the slain human rights activist  that the local police in Nsukka  failed to carry out investigations while the deceased was hospitalized and after his death.

The deceased had reportedly complained hours before he died that the police in the division did not come to obtain first hand information about how he was attacked but allowed the suspects to  walk free.

After his death, his wife, children and relations also raised the alarm that his killers were threatening to kill them if they should take up the case,  alleging also that the police in the area reportedly told their superiors that the attack on Onah resulted from  a mob action.

However, it was learnt that the outgoing Commissioner of Police in Enugu directed detectives at the homicide section to take over and carry out thorough investigations.

Investigations by  Vanguard revealed that as soon as the suspected assailants got hint of the commissioner’s directive, they made moves to frustrate it, using another top police officer at the headquarters in Enugu.

Their plans,  however, failed after the head of the investigating team vowed that justice must be done and swiftly moved down to Nsukka.

Vanguard gathered also that one of the suspects, said to be an imbecile, reportedly opened up after the detectives, acting on information, arrested him in his father’s compound at Agbani village.

He reportedly named fellow  accomplices in the  murder including two of his brothers.