17news Pastor held over murder of 3 church members
AChief Magistrate’s Court sitting in Port Harcourt last Monday remanded one Pastor Chidebere Okoroafor, founder of Altar of Solution Church, in prison custody for allegedly murdering a 25-year-old pregnant woman and two others.
The 32-year-old pastor, who was paraded at the Rivers State Police headquarters on Friday, was said to have murdered the victims; Ada Concilia Ezenwa, Uluoma Onweagba and 9-monthold Christabel Joseph Ezenwa who were members of his church.
Police investigation revealed that Chidebere allegedly lured his victims to an uncompleted building in a farm in Afam axis of Oyigbo Local Government Area of the state where he committed the crime.
It was learnt that the pregnant victim (Uluoma Onweagba) was having an amorous relationship with the accused person before she was murdered alongside two others.
The pastor confessed killing the pregnant woman and the other female member of his church but denied killing the baby girl.
He told the court that he strangled Ada to death and pushed the pregnant Uluoma who fell down, broke her neck and gave up the ghost.
The accused is facing a threecount charge of murder in suit number PMC/456c/2018.
The charge read as follows, “That you Pastor Chidebere Okoroafor on the 11th day of December 2017 at Izuoma Community Oyigbo within the Port Harcourt Magisterial District did murder one Ada Concilia Ezenwa by strangling her on the neck till she died and thereby committed an offence punishable under Section 319(1) of the Criminal Code Cap 37 Vol. II Laws of Rivers State Nigeria 1999.
“That you Pastor Chidebere Okoroafor on the 11th day of December 2017 at Egberu Village, Afam within the Port Harcourt Magisterial District did murder one Uluoma Onweagba by strangling her on the neck till she died and thereby committed an offence punishable under Section 319(1) of the Criminal Code Cap 37 Vol. II Laws of Rivers State Nigeria 1999.
“That you Pastor Chidebere Okoroafor on the same date and place in the aforesaid Magisterial District did murder one Christabel Joseph Ezenwa a child of nine (9) months old by pushing her off from the back of Uluoma Onweagba to the ground where she broke her skull which caused her death and thereby committed an offence punishable under Section 319(1) of the Criminal Code Cap 37 Vol.I.”
The trial Chief Magistrate, Kariba Braide, ordered that the accused be remanded in the prison custody and directed the court prosecution to transmit the case file to the High Court where he will be tried accordingly.
The Rivers State Police Command had on Friday paraded the suspect at the Police Command Headquarters where he pleaded with both the Police Command and the families of the deceased to forgive him.
Parading the suspect before journalists, the Deputy Commissioner of Police in charge of Administration, DCP Okoro, said the unfortunate incident started unfolding on December 11, 2017 when the whereabouts of Ada Concilia Ezenwa, Christabel Joseph Ezenwa and Uluoma Onweagba became unknown to their close ones.
He said the matter was reported to the Afam Divisional Police Headquarters.
After preliminary investigation by the police and with diligent search by members of the community, the decomposing corpse of Uluoma and the nine-month-old baby Christabel were discovered in a bush along Afam-Egberu Road on December 13, 2017.
DCP Okoro further said that on the of December 18, six days after the recovery of the corpse of Uluoma and the baby, the decomposing corpse of Ada Concila Ezenwa was recovered in an uncompleted building at Izuoma Community in Oyigbo Local Government Area.
“Investigation commenced in earnest at the State CID with the constitution of a team of seasoned investigators headed by the Deputy Commissioner of Police State CID, Port Harcourt. The above named pastor who was said to be having an amorous relationship with one of the deceased, Uluoma Onweagba, was invited, interviewed and interrogated on the murder.”
“He was subsequently detained as his explanations were not convincing particularly with the information at the disposal of the investigators that the deceased persons had on 11th December 2017 informed close neighbours that they were going to visit the pastor over a pregnancy issue involving the deceased Uluoma Onweagba.”
“On February, 2018 faced with overwhelming evidence and facts linking him with the death of the deceased persons, the pastor confessed to the murder of all the deceased persons,” Okoro said when the suspect was paraded at the police headquarters.
He said the pastor had dwelled on the trust the deceased persons had on him by manipulating the two women on the said date of murder by luring Ada Concilia Ezenwa to an uncompleted building while telling the other deceased person to wait three poles away because he was coming to join her.
“After strangling the late Ada Concilia, he joined Uluoma Onweagba along Afam Road from where they took a tricycle to Afam Roundabout before taking a motorcycle to an isolated farm in Egberu. As they walked on a bush path to the farm he strangled her, with a baby strapped to her back.”
“She was suffocated with the wrapper she used in strapping the baby to her back. The baby was equally discovered dead,” he stated.
The case was adjourned to March 27, 2018.
The pastor confessed killing the pregnant woman and the other female member of his church but denied killing the baby girl