We stabbed our victim to death in error - Suspected ritualists
Two suspected ritualists arrested by the police in Benue State have said that their victim, a university admission seeker, was stabbed to death in error. The duo, Hyginus Mbachi and Gambo Bulus, who were paraded at the police headquarters in Makurdi, yesterday, were alleged to have killed the young male admission seeker after one of them (suspects) took him from his father on the pretext that he was going to secure admission for him in a university in Cameroon.
Both suspects in an interview with journalists owned up to the crime. The suspects during the interview, however alleged that the victim was a member of the Young Vikings Confraternity (cult group) but that he was not actually the target for the ritual only that he was stabbed in error.
But, the Benue State Police Commissioner, CP Omololu Bishi, who paraded the suspects, disclosed that his men acted on a petition written by the victim’s father, Iorumbur Amanger, complaining that Mbachi defrauded him of the sum of N208,150 being fee for the admission of his son, Afa into a university in Cameroon.
“He (Amanger) said the suspect left his house with his son to Cameroon and since then, he could not communicate with his son,” adding that during investigation, Mbachi and Bulus were arrested in Nasarawa State on February 22, in connection with the case.
Bishi said the suspects confessed to have killed Afa since January 5, this year for ritual purposes, adding however that the herbalist was still on the run with the blood stained knife used to stab the deceased.
The police commissioner further disclosed that the suspects had also been collecting money from the complainants for their own personal use and that they (suspects) revealed that after stabbing Afa, they took him to a hospital on the claims that he was their friend who had an accident.
“As soon as the hospital took the patient into the emergency ward, the two suspected criminals disappeared and never returned,” he said.
Bishi said the corpse of the deceased has been recovered, adding that they (suspects) would soon be charged to court. CP Bishi parading the suspects, Bulus and Mbachi yesterday at the Benue Police Command