Suspected Killers Of Anambra Billionaire Odunukwe Linked To Another Murder

The police in Lagos have linked the principal suspect in the murder of Chief Ignatius Odunukwe, popular Anambra business man, to other crimes including the murder of a commissioner from Bayelsa State. The principal suspect, Bob Daniel Ibeaji, was paraded yesterday by the Assistant Inspector General of Police (AIG) in charge of Zone 2, Ahmed Iliyasu, along with his alleged accomplice: Arinze Igwe, 26; Solomon Cletus, 30 and Israel Obigaremu, 35. Addressing journalists on the arrest, AIG Iliyasu said through investigation, Ibeaji, who claimed to be a medical doctor, had been linked to two other incidents. One, he said, was that of a commissioner in Bayelsa State, Honourable Depologa, who was murdered and his remains found along the Abuja Expressway. “This happened a week after his encounter with the victim at Ibeto Hotel, Abuja. During their discussion, he offered to give the victim N220 million for a block of flat situated at Durumi, Abuja,”AIG Iliyasu said.

 He said a second victim, Jude Efule, a property developer in Abuja, survived being killed after Ibeaji had held him captive in an apartment and forced him to sign a prepared document transferring ownership of the victim’s property to him. While speaking with journalists, Ibeaji gave details of how he conspired with the three others to snuff life out of the deceased at Artican Beach Resort, Ajah, Lagos state on December 1, 2019. He said they killed the deceased because they wanted to take over his N900 million property in Abuja.

 “That Sunday afternoon, when I was sure he was on his way to Artican Resort Hotel, I instructed one of my boys to bring a bag for me. After he signed the documents of the building in question in the garden, I told him to come inside the hotel room so as to give him the money. But when he came I started shouting on him to hand the documents over to me but he insisted I must first pay. At that point, one of my colleagues brought the bag and as Chief bent down to check the money inside, I hit him with an axe on his head.

We dragged him to the toilet, injected him and he slept off. I wanted to use the document to claim the property as mine and later sell it,” he said. The deceased body, which was cut into pieces, was recovered by operatives of the Zonal Intervention Squad (ZIS) of the Zone 2 Command, last week, in a canal in Ogombo forest along Ajah road, while his 4-Runner SUV was tracked to Artican Beach Resort.