One Augustine Akor has been apprehended for allegedly raping and killing his relative, the police in Enugu state have said.
The 21-year-old suspect strangled to death the 16-year-old female relative identified as Faith Akuji after forcefully having carnal knowledge of her.
The state police Command Spokesman, DSP Daniel Ndukwe, made the disclosure in a statement on Friday in Enugu.
According to him, the incident happened on June 8 in a bush at Mpole-Ubere in the Ette community, within Igbo-Eze North Local Government Area of the state.
It took the combined efforts of police operatives serving in Igbo-Eze North Division of the Command with assistance from the Neighborhood Watch Group, to track Akor and arrest him on June 12 at about 9.30am, Ndukwe informed.
“Preliminary investigation indicates that the victim had gone missing in the evening hours of June 8, after her grandfather sent her to grind cassava in the community centre, as all efforts made to trace her whereabouts proved abortive.
“Her decomposing body was, however, found in the bush, following the arrest of the suspect.
“The suspect also confessed to having dragged the victim into the bush and forcefully had carnal knowledge of her, until she fainted and died in the process.
“The victim’s remains, found without any lower-body cloth, were evacuated to hospital and confirmed dead by doctors on duty,” he said.
Ndukwe said that the case is currently undergoing further discreet investigation at the Homicide Section of the State Criminal Intelligence and Investigation Department (State CID) of the Command.
The Command’s spokesman said the suspect would be arraigned in court upon the conclusion of the investigation.
He said that the Commissioner of Police, Mr Ahmed Ammani, who described the act as “atrocious and unthinkable”, consoled and sympathised with the family and friends of the deceased victim.
“The commissioner has directed that the case be meticulously handled, concluded within recorded time and charged to court for justice to be dispensed accordingly,” he added.
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