Four brothers in the Ushongo Local Government Area of Benue were on Thursday remanded in Makurdi for allegedly killing a 35-year-old man in a police cell.
The brothers – Aondoyima Asua, Terpav Asua, Terkula Asua and Luher Asua – were charged with conspiracy, trespass, mischief and murder.
They appeared before a Makurdi Chief Magistrates’ Court.
The Chief Magistrate, Mr Vincent Kor, did not take the plea of the defendants for want of jurisdiction.
He ordered that they should be kept at the Correctional Centre, Benue.
Kor adjourned the case until March 15, for mention.
Earlier, the prosecutor, Sgt. Godwin Ato, told the court that the case was transferred to the State Criminal Investigation Department, Makurdi, on Jan. 21.
Ato said that the letter transferring the suspects indicated that one Vashima Wevergh of RCM Church, Mbator Agbede, Konshisha Local Government Area of Benue, told a police station on Jan. 13. that her elder brother, Moses Wevergh, was killed.
According to Ato, the complainant said that on Jan.12, her brother was accused of causing the disappearance of the manhood of one Mr Aondoungwa Asua.
He added that the complainant said that when Aondoungwa raised alarm about losing his manhood, the defendants and some others at large, trespassed into a police outpost at Ikyobo and beat her brother, cut him with machetes and axed him to death.
The prosecutor told the court that the defendants were arrested during the police investigation.
According to Ato, the alleged offences contravene Sections 97, 349, 329 and 222 of the Penal Code Law of Benue, 2004.