Police have arrested a 20-year-old man, Chukwuma (surname withheld), who allegedly specialised in killing women and having sex with their dead bodies in Ebonyi State. The suspect allegedly killed three women along farm pathways in the area and had sex with them.
The state Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), Mr. Chris Anyanwu, who confirmed the incident, said the suspect was arrested after the police set him up with a girl along a farm pathway and he came out to strangle the girl to death.
Anyanwu said the suspect, who is a painter, confessed to the crime and said he did it because his people refused to stop calling him a nickname he (suspect) hated.
The PRO said the suspect after killing the last woman stole her N8,500 and used it to buy handset and drink local gin.
The PPRO said: “We nabbed him after placing surveillance at a particular farm, where he usually waylays women who are going to farm or coming back from farm. We got the information that he had killed three women in the same way. He has the habit of waylaying the women on lonely bush path. Whenever a woman passes through the place he pounces on her and strangles her to death and has sex with the dead body.
“One of these women’s name is Anyigor from the same village. On July 15, she went to farm at a place called Okwulike but never returned. Then, when he was later arrested, he (the suspect) confessed that he was hanging around that farm area when he saw the woman who is late now, and pounced on her, strangled her to death by grabbing her neck region until she gave up before he had sex with the dead woman and robbed her of N8,500, which he found on her.
“The suspect said he used the money to buy Nokia handset phone and used the remaining money to drink local gin called ‘kaikai’.
“The second incident happened a week after, on July 23, the victim is Mrs. Helen, a 54-year-old woman, who went to Egiagu village to farm and never returned.
“So, alarmed by her non-return, her son alerted the villagers and a search party later found her dead body along the lonely farm path. When Chukwuma was arrested, he confessed that he strangled the woman the same way he strangled the other two women.
When interrogated, the suspect said his annoyance was that people from that community called him a nickname ‘Sogbodo’, adding that he had warned people to desist from calling him the name but they continued.