MURDER OF CYNTHIA | PRIME MURDER SUSPECT | “PULLED DOWN FROM CEILING” | TRYING TO ESCAPE | WHEN POLICE STORMED HIS HOME

The suspects. Inset: Items recovered from them.

MURDER suspect Okomu Nwabufo’s arrest for the killing of Cynthia, Major-Gen Frank Osokugo’s daughter, was dramatic and eventful, The Nation learnt yesterday [Aug 22]. Nwabufo, 33, tried to escape through the ceiling when the police stormed his Festac Town, Lagos home, the officer who led the team seized him said.




Mr. Okoro, an Assistant Commissioner of Police, said detectives were led to the suspected killers by an anonymous call to the hotel, asking that the body of the “bastard” be removed.

He said police investigators picked the number and went through the network’s call log. Okoro said: “When we called the number that was more consistent, we discovered it was that of the girlfriend of one of the suspects (23-year-old Odera Ezekiel), the one in Anambra and we lured her to come to Lagos”.

“Through her, we started communicating with the suspect who said he was in Cotonou and we went there but did not get him. She called again and he said he had left Cotonou for Awka in Anambra and we moved there and he was not in Awka”.

“He later called his girlfriend to say he was in Nnewi and plain cloth policemen moved to the place with her. I told her to hug her boyfriend when she sees him so that we can use that sign to identify him and that was exactly what she did when the suspect came out from a joint within the neighbourhood where he was arrested”.

“He was moved to Lagos and around midnight, I started interrogating him and we told him that the prime suspect, his uncle who he identified from the footage of the CCTV, had confessed that he was the person that killed Cynthia and that he said because he lied to him and did not give him all he collected from the deceased, he (the uncle) decided to open up”.

According to Okoro, the suspect opened up, telling investigators the entire story. He also took them to the home of the prime suspect on Sixth Avenue, Festac Town.
Okoro said: “We got there around 3am and we were there until about 4:30am when the prime suspect came out to the balcony”.

“Immediately he saw policemen, he went back into the house. When we heard noise, like the house zinc was being pulled, we climbed up to his apartment and noticed that he was trying to escape through the ceiling. Unfortunately for him, his legs broke the ceiling as he was trying to escape and I pulled him down”.

Cynthia, a post-graduate student of Nasarawa State University, Keffi, was allegedly killed by Okwuoma Nwabufo and his cousin, Ezekiel, on July 21.