By Uju Mbanusi

A middle aged man identified as Christopher Ezenwaka from Anambra state, is currently cooling his heels at the Homicide Department of the State Criminal Investigation Department, Yaba, over the alleged gruesome murder of a 25 year old plumber identified as Samuel Ikeokwu Nwoke at Mangoro estate, two weeks ago.

Although operatives of the Homicide section have reportedly begun investigation to unravel the circumstances that led to Samuel’s demise, the suspect denied knowing anything about  the  Plumber’s murder. .

When Crime Alert  visited the bereaved  family at their Mangoro abode,  sympathizers  were  still thronging the apartment to console the family.

In an emotion laden voice, the deceased’s father, Mr  Nwoke  who hails from Okigwe in Imo state, narrated how the news of his son’s demise was broken.

The gutter where the body was dumped. (Inset) The deceased: Samuel Nwoke

According to him: “ I returned from work at about 2pm on June 18, 2013 and asked my wife the where about of Samuel. She said he just left the house after receiving a telephone call which she suspected to be from one of his clients.

I was a bit worried when he had not  returned at about 9pm. I tried calling his number but it was switched off. So I presumed he had gone for an ‘outside work’, because sometimes he would  go, stay a day or two before coming home.  But he would always  call to inform us where he was. We waited until the next day without any news from him.

By Friday June 21, someone advised me to go  to  Ikpeteshi police post at Mangoro estate to report the case, since Christopher Ezenwaka, the man whom my son worked for, lives almost opposite the police post, I obliged. Thirty minutes later, one of the police men called me on the phone to come to the station.

I went in the company of a friend and was informed to my greatest surprise that the body of a young man was discovered in a gutter very close to an Oduua Peoples Congress, OPC post at Mangoro estate. He further told me to call  one Mr Wale for more information on it. I did and Mr. Wale asked me to come to the office on Monday since it was already late.

On reaching there on Monday in the company of three members of my family,  Mr. Wale handed us over to another policeman who showed us a  card he used to  deposite the body at the Lagos state mortuary- Yaba. He said  he could not go with us because he got a call that another corpse was discovered around Ojota area.

My worst fear was confirmed on reaching the mortuary at Yaba, as i discovered the corpse to be that of my son! On further observation, I discovered  that  his eyes and tongue were missing”, Nwoke said, trying hard not to betray his emotions.

Continuing, he said:  “ I went back to the police post at Mangoro to find out what happened to my son because  I was reliably informed that my son was last seen alive at the police post in the company of Christopher Ezenwaka ( his boss).  The officer said he was not aware of that and ordered his men to cross check and get the name of the officer on duty that Tuesday (June 18) afternoon.

They did and a female police officer confirmed  that my son came in the company of Christopher  to report a misunderstanding between them. But since both parties were unyielding, they were told to  go and settle the matter out side without writing any  statement. She also said  my son came to the station to get some police men to arrest Christopher before then but on getting to his house, he was not there. It was discovered   that both incidents were not registered.

From there I went to Shasha division  to inform the Divisional Police Officer, DPO, who assigned a policeman  to go with me and arrest  Christopher’s wife at her shop which was  not too far from the place where my son’s body was dumped, since her husband could not be found. She called her husband from the station and when he came, she was released.

But last Friday, I was informed that Christopher’s elder brother  whom everyone described as a millionaire called a photographer I had earlier met  to take shots of my son’s corpse, to do a job for him, between 9-11pm.  When he got there he was asked to take some shots of the body of a young man lying dead in a gutter. He showed me the pictures and behold it was that of my son after he had been killed. This shows there is more to the death of my son. I know all these cannot bring him back but all I want is, justice!”