In the annals of heinous crimes, the gruesome murder of Chief Ignatius Odunukwe occupies a shamefully poignant spot because it symbolises the nation’s moral collapse. He was invited to a beach resort in Lekki on December 1, 2019 in the pretext of concluding a business transaction in which he was expected to collect N900 million in exchange for his huge real estate property in Abuja. He was to pick up the money and hand over the signed documents to one Dr. Daniel Bob Okechukwu Ibeaji, a consultant surgeon, who allegedly murdered him. Chief Odunukwe’s body was thrown into the morasses of Ogombo Forest in Ajah, Lagos. It was retrieved on January 20, 2020 when Dr. Ibeaji, Solomon Cletus, Arinze Igwe, the doctor’s hired helps, with an Uber driver, Israel Obigaremu, led the Zone 2 Deputy Inspector General of Police, Ahmed Illyasu, and detectives, to the canal in the forest.
The suspected mastermind of this grisly murder, Dr. Ibeaji, without prompting, confessed that he was a son of a wealthy Nigerian, which was why when he left high school in 1995, he flew straight to Britain to one of the best medical schools in the world where he reportedly studied and received the MBBS, (Bachelor of Science and Bachelor of Surgery), but was also admitted as a member of the Royal College of Surgeons. He is incredulous that people doubt his claims because, he said, all they needed to do was to call the college because he was one of the best products of the university.
In 2010 when he returned from the UK, he was hired by Holy Trinity Hospital, Area II, Abuja. But his obsession with quick and huge money would not let him settle down and practise as a plastic and reconstructive consultant surgeon.
He began to plan Chief Odunukwe’s death while being conducted through Chief Odunukwe’s property, which he was inspecting as a potential purchaser. After killing Chief Odunukwe, Dr. Ibeaji merrily went home with the documents of the N900 million property. He would just show up to claim the property after the hullaballoo over the chief’s death, which we think betrayed some naiveté disguised by his immaculate English and a diction that betrays his elitist British antecedents.
Dr. Ibeaji, therefore, went into what he described as business, which, indeed, was smuggling – gold smuggling. He confessed he made a lot of money therefrom. But the more he made, the more he craved for more money. A man who values knowledge, he went to Switzerland for a Master’s degree in Business Administration (MBA). Education is expected to be an antidote to the kind of thinking capable of formulating the murder of Chief Odunukwe. Here it failed.
The Police suspect he had executed two such dastardly crimes. There was Bayelsa State commissioner, Depologa, murdered and his body found in Abuja expressway, a week after a meeting with Dr. Ibeaji at a hotel in Abuja, where he offered the commissioner N220 million for a block of flats situated at Durumi in Abuja. There was Jude Efule, another property developer, who Dr. Ibeaji held hostage and forced to sign a prepared document transferring ownership of the victim’s property to him. Efule was luckier, as neighbours called the Police and Dr. Ibeaji was thwarted and ended up in the Kuje Prison for 11 months. Dr. Ibeaji told the world in the Police video in the Internet, “I think I’m a monster.”
We commend the Police for their excellent work and urge the Inspector General of Police (IGP), Mohammed Adamu, to multiply the number of detectives of such skill and dedication to restore the sense of security of Nigerians. At the time Dr. Ibeaji was caught, he had thrown away his SIM card. He was riding anonymously in Uber cabs. He thought he would never ever be found. The Police proved him wrong.
But the nation has work to do. The lust for wealth was always prevalent but it has now assumed dangerous dimensions. The Federal and state governments are not paying any heed to the vast disparities in income inequality.
We appeal to our social and educational institutions, civil society organisations, families, clans, to rise up and push for a moral rearmament. We appeal to organisations, especially the association of town unions to remind their members of the damage the Ibeajis inflict on the reputation of Nigerians and culture. We appeal to socio-cultural organisations to place the re-education of Nigerians on the true purpose of life on its agenda and work hard on it in the next 10 years, to emphasise honesty, hard work, creativity, modesty and humility.