From Stanley Uzoaru, Owerri
The Imo state police command on Thursday paraded a couple, Mr and Mrs Blessing and Onyekachi Alozie for allegedly abducting and killing a 75 Year- old artisan,Chief Precious Okoli.
Parading the suspects before newsmen in Owerri on Thuesday,the state commissioner of police, Rabiu Hussaini, said the couple were arrested following intelligent report availed to their tactical team.
According to the CP,both couple met at the correctional centre while serving robbery and kidnapped sentences. He said they blossomed their relationship after the jailbreak in Owerri.
Disclosing how the artisan was killed, the CP said the husband used his wife as a decoy against the deceased who was said to have been having an affair with Blessing when his husband was in jail.
The CP said ” following a kidnap incident in Orlu on December 8, of one Chief Okoli precious, aged ,75, and was reported on December 11, by his son, one Fabian Ubochi, where it was suspected that he had been murdered by his abductors.
“Sequel to the report, the command’s Anti-Kidnapping Unit through technical analysis of intelligence, were able to identify, locate and arrest one Agubata Maxwel Joel Chimezie and the victim’s ash coloured vehicle was recovered from him where he took it to a motor spray painter’s Workshop to changed the colour of the vehicle.
“On interrogation he made confessional Statement revealing how they kidnapped the victim and led the Police detectives to the house of his accomplice. On arrival at the house of the suspect, one Onyekachi Alozie on sighting the Police, jumped down from a story building and took to his heel thus, his wife, Oluchi Alozie , was arrested to the Police station.
“She confessed to have featured prominently in lots of kidnapping incidents carried out by her husband and his syndicate. She further revealed that it was the husband, Onyekachi Alozie who hatched the plan with his gang members to use her, to lure the victim out of his house to a lonely place where he was kidnapped.
“It may interest you to know that Agubata Maxwell Joel Chimezie and Onyeka Alozie met themselves in the Nigerian Correctional Service, Owerri, Imo State, where they were standing trials on criminal charges ranging from armed robbery, Kidnapping and Human trafficking, before 5th April, 2021 jail break where they escaped, regrouped and formed a new syndicate of kidnapping and armed robbery gang.
“Again in the course of our investigation it was revealed that Oluchi Alozie was having an affair with the kidnapped victim, Chief precious Okoli and her husband, Onyekachi Alozie is aware and used her to lure him to her resident at Nkume in Njaba LGA of Imo State, and later they moved to a lonely road, where her husband and his gang members came out of the bush and kidnapped him on gun point and zoomed in his car to an unknown destination.” The CP stated.
Meanwhile,the Blessing during interrogation confessed to the crime,saying that he obeyed his husband to lure out the man because he threatened to kill her.