… Wife in critical condition
By Ifeanyi Okolie

Residents of Iragon village in Badagry area of Lagos State were thrown into mourning recently, when Brigadier-General Umai Jabil Uwurigbe (rtd), was hacked to death while his wife Mrs. Uwurigb sustained severe injuries after armed men invaded their home.

The relative peace and tranquility at Iragon village was promptly shattered the moment the residents of the area caught sight of the bloodied remains of the General. The attackers who were said to have sighted Mrs. Uwurigbe watching them while they were killing her husband reportedly inflicted machete wounds on her in a bid to kill and prevent her from exposing their identities. Mrs. Uwurigbe, however survived the attack as neighbours who saw her in a pool of blood rushed her to Badagry General Hospital for treatment.

Residents of the area who besieged  the General’s compound  rained curses and abuses on his killers, describing the dead as a peaceful and easy-going person. A resident, who simply identified himself as Jacob, told Crime Guard, that the general never intimidated or harassed anyone in the area with his status.  This, according to him, left many residents wondering what may have necessitated his brutal murder.

Jacob, who said the incident surprised everyone in the area because the man was not known to be a troublemaker, sugested that the mission could not have been armed robbery. He suspected that it could have been the handiwork of assassins. “If you were around on the evening of September 20, 2011, when the incident occurred, you will know that people loved this man. People wept profusely.

“I don’t know if anybody can talk to you in that house because ‘Mama’ is in the hospital. They said her condition is very critical. Baba as we called the general was a very peaceful person. We don’t know him as a troublemaker.

“He was a retired general. He never used his status in the military to intimidate anybody. The whole people in the community are weeping for him. He and his wife loved each other as I was told. We all in this community are still in shock over his death,” he said.

Policemen from Morogbo Police Station, who arrived the scene moments after the attack, were also left in a puzzle, as they couldn’t get a motive behind the killing. A source at the station who took part in the early stage of investigations before it was transferred to the state Criminal Investigations Department, SCID, Panti,Yaba, Lagos, told Crime Guard during a visit that “at first, we couldn’t pin a motive behind the killing, as the general was not involved in any business that could have resulted in his killing. And we also did not look on the case of robbery because nothing was taken or stolen from the general’s home after the attack”.

But the story took a new twist when Mrs. Uwurigbe, from her hospital bed gave policemen working on the case, descriptions of her attackers, which unarguably matched those of two foreigners who were farmers working on their farmland.  At that point, policemen from Morogbo immediately swooped on 38-year-old Samuel Sosu, who was the head of the farmers from the Republic of Benin, working on the general’s farmland.

Samuel was immediately whisked to the homicide section of the SCID, where he was interrogated over the murder of the general. There, he was said to have  denied having a hand in the killing . He also claimed that he wasn’t present at the crime scene.  According to him; “I don’t have a hand in the murder of the general; we have a very cordial relationship. We were very close, that was why he gave me seven acres of land which I used for farming.  I was not at the crime scene. It was the two guys I employed as labourers that may have killed the General.

”I am just an herbalist turned farmer. I am not a criminal.”

But investigators did not buy his story.  They kept him in detention and later asked him to assist in tracking down the other suspects.  After a month long search for the fleeing suspects, the police eventually apprehended Sosube Abiodun, at Kajola Village, in Ogun State, where he was hiding.

Following Abiodun’s arrest, the story changed.  He confessed to the police during interrogations that Samuel had contracted him and a friend to kill the General in order to take possession of the seven acres of farmland which  the general gave to him to farm on.   According to him,  “ Samuel procured a friend and I (still at large), to kill the general so he could take possession of the land. Samuel told my friend that we should go and kill the General and he promised to reward us and also said we could search his house and take any money we can find in it.

On that day, my friend and I hid in the General’s compound and when the general came out to switch off his generator, we pounced on him and slashed him to death.   When we noticed that his wife had seen us, we entered the apartment and cut her too but we didn’t know she survived.” However, Abiodun also claimed that he acted under the influence of metaphysical forces.

“Samuel   was the one that hypnotized me into committing the crime,” he said.

The Lagos State Police Public Relations Officer, Mr. Samuel Jinadu, who confirmed the report, said, “On September 20, 2011, at about 5pm, in Badagry, the deceased was macheted to death by the suspects.

”Whilst they were killing the General, his wife saw them and recognised them. They consequently attacked her and left her for dead.

”The wife was able to identify the suspects and Sosu was immediately arrested while Sosube was arrested a month later in Ogun State. However, one suspect is still at large.”

Jinadu noted that the suspects were citizens of Benin Republic residing in Nigeria illegally. He added that the case would soon be transferred to court.