The Rivers State Police Command has arrested and paraded one Pastor Chidebere Okoroafor for allegedly killing his fiancé, Uluoma Onweagba, Mrs Ada Concila Ezeawa and her nine month old baby, Baby Christabel Joseph who were members of his church.
Pastor Okoroafor was said to be the founder and Presiding Pastor of the Altar of Solution Church, Izuoma, Afam in Oyigbo Local Government Area of Rivers State and hails from Abariba in Abia State. It was learnt that the suspect was having an amorous relationship with one of the deceased, Uluoma Onweagba, 25, a member of his church which resulted into a pregnancy.
The suspect however in an attempt to get rid of the pregnancy and protect the image of the church decided to snuff off life from the victim so as to conceal the information from other members of the church, but unknown to him, the deceased had told their neighbours that they were visiting the pastor on that fateful day over the pregnancy.
Briefing journalists at the State Police Command headquarters in Port Harcourt last Friday, the Deputy Commissioner of Police, Finance and Administration, DCP Cyril Okoro said Pastor Okoroafor in a most bizarre manner allegedly and gruesomely murdered three of his own flocks, including an unborn child.
Okoro stated that the unfortunate incident started unfolding when on 11th December, 2017 at about 1100hrs, the whereabouts of the deceased became unknown to their close ones resulting in the lodgement of a formal complaint of their disappearance at the Afam Divisional Headquarters.
He told newsmen that after preliminary investigation by the police coupled with diligent search by members of the community, the decomposing corpse of Uluoma Onweagba (F) and baby Christabel Joseph were later discovered in a bush located along Afam-Igberu road on 13th December, 2017.
According to him, their corpses were immediately evacuated and deposited at the mortuary pending further investigation, adding that six days later, the body of Ada Concila Ezeawa, the mother of the nine month old baby was recovered in an uncompleted building at Izuoma Community in Oyigbo and was later evacuated and deposited at a mortuary pending further investigation by the police.
He averred that the matter was later transferred to the State Criminal Investigation and Intelligence Department (SCIID) for discreet investigation and report, adding that investigation commenced in earnest at the State CID with the constitution of a team of seasoned investigators headed by the Deputy Commissioner of Police, State, CID, Port Harcourt.
“The above named pastor who was said to be having an amorous relationship with one of the deceased, Uluoma Onweagba was invited, interviewed and interrogated pertaining the murder of the aforementioned deceased persons. He was subsequently detained as his explanations were not convincing, particularly with the information at the disposal of the investigators that the deceased persons had on 11th day of December, 2017 informed neigbours that they were going to visit the pastor over a pregnancy issue involving the late Uluoma Onweagba”.
“On the 9th of February, 2018, faced with overwhelming evidence and facts linking him with the death of the deceased persons, the pastor confessed to the commission of the said murder of all the deceased persons. Dwelling on the trust the deceased persons had on him, he manipulated the two women on the said date of murder by first luring Ada Concila Ezeawa to an uncompleted building while telling other deceased persons to wait three poles away that he was coming to join them, he stated.