Man confesses to killing Rivers DPO by mistake

Uche Ogbonna, aged24, also known as General, from Abia State, has confessed to killing the Divisional Police Officer (DPO) in charge of Rumuolumeni Police State, in Obio-Akpor Local Government Area of Rivers State, SP Kingsley Chukwueggu, by mistake.

The suspect, who is leader of a seven-man gang, disclosed this yesterday at the state police headquarters in Port Harcourt when he was paraded alongside other members of his gang by the police.

He said: “We started this operational business last year out of frustration because I have been a hawker and okada rider. The night of the incident, we were robbing on the highway and security was very tight with the police and vigilante operatives all over. We were looking for a way to escape and we shot sporadically into the air to escape, we didn’t know the flying bullet hit the DPO.” He, however, pleaded with the police to forgive him, saying it was his first time of killing.

Meanwhile, the Commissioner of Police, Zaki Ahmed, said the mindless killers of the DPO were arrested by men of the IGP Monitoring Unit, led by the commander, ACP Benneth Igwe, in a sting operation in Abia while the second in command of the gang, Chidiebere Oberenwa, was nabbed in Lagos and was brought to Port Harcourt. Other members include Bethel Ihejirika, Solomon Ogbonna, Ikenna Onwuchekwa, Nnamdi Ikpe and Victor Ngozi Marcus.

It would be recalled that the late DPO was gunned down by hoodlums who were in service uniforms, pretending to be on a stop-and-search duty while returning from his hometown at Owaza in Abia State on April 9, 2018.

In another development, three persons lost their lives yesterday in Plateau State by unknown assailants. There was tension in the Farin Gada area of Jos North local government area, as residents woke up in the morning to find the body of a 15-year-old boy named Francis Weni, with his eyes, vital organs and private part removed.

He was the son of the Miangwan Zarma, the village head of the area.The crowd of sympathisers who gathered around the mutilated body caused pandemonium as a confrontation ensued between the natives and Hausas at the Tomato Market, very close to the scene. Soldiers of the Operation Safe Haven (OPSH) came in when the situation degenerated and started shooting into the air to disperse the crowd.