There’s no perfect crime----Police Chief

The late Ijeoma

Pretty Ijeoma

On January 10, 2014, a man was walking through one of the narrow bush paths at Abule-Oshun area of Lagos State, when he suddenly noticed the body of a young girl. The body was lying on the grass, quite distinctive.

The girl looked like she was sleeping. She wore one of the mini-gowns in vogue. She also had bangles and a wristwatch adorning her two wrists. The brownish long weave-on, adorning her head, streamed down her back, away from her face. The morning sunlight danced on her face.

A closer look and nudge by the man revealed that she might be dead afterall. The man raced to the nearest police station, Onireke, to report his discovery.

Onireke Police Station was under Area E Police Command, Festac. The Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP), in charge of that axis is Mr. Dan Okoro.

Did Christian kill his lover Ijeoma?

Dan Okoro

Immediately he was alerted, he deployed his men to the scene and instructed them to take ample crime scene pictures from all angles.

In the afternoon of that same day, a small crowd of worried family members besieged the Onireke Police Station, to report that their 26-year-old daughter, known as Ijeoma Nwachukwu, had not returned home since yesterday (January, 11, 2014).

One of them gave a vivid description of Ijeoma and what she wore the last time she was seen.

The policemen shared secret and worried glances. They presented several pictures taken of the corpse of the girl found in the bush path.

The screech of pains and wailings which followed, was all the policemen needed to know that the missing girl and the unknown corpse were the same person.

Nobody knew how Ijeoma died or how she got to the bush path, but homicide detectives attached to Area E Police Command, were no novice, they knew that Ijeoma did not just leave her home to take a nap in the bush path, where she was found dead.

Attempting to cover all angles, the police asked the deceased’s family the last person that was seen with her. They all chorused, Joy. Miss. Joy was the victim’s best friend. Police invited Joy for a chat.

When Joy was told about the death of her friend, she could not believe her ears. She had left Ijeoma on January 11, 2014, the day before she died, hale and hearty. She couldn’t fathom what had gone wrong.

Sitting before the homicide detectives, in the small interrogation room, Joy revealed the details of her last meeting with Ijeoma.

She told the police: “We went to meet Ijeoma’s boyfriend, Christian Samuel, at the ASPAMDA Market. He’s an apprentice at Alaba International Market. It was in the market he met Ijeoma. She used to sell food with her step-mother. On that January 11, Christian bought a gallon of acid and gave it to Ijeoma. He asked Ijeoma to go and wait for him under the bridge. But he later told Ijeoma to tell me to leave. I remembered telling Ijeoma that the gallon Christian gave her to carry for him was acid. I left her under the bridge, waiting for Christian.”

After listening to Joy, police detectives knew that Christian might have more clues to give in unravelling the death of the girl.

Policemen went to the shop where Christian was an apprentice. They met his boss, who looked worried at the sight of the policemen. He told them that he sent Christian on errand. He suggested they wait since Christian would not take long.

“We were right there in the shop when he walked in. We arrested him. When his boss heard about the death of Ijeoma, the man said that might explain Christian’s behavior within the last 24 hours,” said one of the homicide detectives.

He continued: “He told us that for reasons he couldn’t fathom, Christian, 23, who had served him for five years and had just two years left to go, started agitating that he wanted to leave by weekend. He had only come to the shop to hand over some of the keys to his boss’ offices. He had already packed his belongings and would have left the following day.”

At the police station, Christian allegedly proved a hard nut to crack, insisting that he knew nothing about the death of his lover, but finally caved in under the heat of interrogation.

He told his interrogators that Ijeoma killed herself because he refused to accept her pregnancy. He said she wanted to foist it on him. “I was late in closing shop that day and told Ijeoma to go and wait for me at an ice-cream joint, but she called back that the ice cream joint did not open that day. I told her to go and wait for me at Cossy-Inn Hotel. It was one of the hotels we used to frequent. It was when I went there to join her that she told me about the pregnancy. But, I knew I had not had sex with her for the past six months without a condom. I knew the baby was not mine and told her so. I went downstairs to buy drinks, but before I came back, she had drunk the acid. I ran out of the hotel. I now know I was wrong, I should have waited and called the police.”

Police, however, believed that Christian painstakingly planned the murder of Ijeoma. This plan was supposedly hatched after he discovered that Ijeoma travelled to East with her family to have an Igbo traditional marriage introduction with another guy.

Christian wanted to be sure and had approached the girl’s step-mum in her shop, asking for Ijeoma’s hand in marriage. The woman told him that she had already accepted, ‘drink from another guy as tradition demands for Ijeoma’s hand in marriage and would not accept any other drink or offer from Christian.’

Thus the rumour he heard was confirmed. He also reportedly told a girl-friend of Ijeoma, that he would deal with Ijeoma. The girl was also one of the witnesses that told police the threat allegedly made by Christian.

On the fateful day of January 11, Christian bought the acid, went to where Ijeoma was selling and told her that they would be going out that day. He gave her the acid, which today, turned out to be the murder weapon, to keep for him.

Apparently, Joy wanted to wait for Ijeoma, but Christian seemed to sense this and allegedly called Ijeoma to tell her friend to leave.

A policeman said: “When they got to the hotel, he bought drinks and later sent Ijeoma downstairs to buy fried chicken. It was when she went to buy the chicken that he doped her drink with the acid. She was still holding the chicken in one hand when her body was found by the hotel receptionist. The receptionist was worried by the manner Christian fled the hotel and had gone to check the room.”

The stunned and scared receptionist had alerted his boss, the Managing Director, Mr. Sango-Olusegun Tumo. Tumo had also alerted his younger brother, Ajibola Kehinde, who always seemed to know what to do in time of crises.

Kehinde suggested they moved the corpse out of the hotel. They bundled the corpse inside their car boot, drove for a while before hitting on the idea to dump the corpse in the bush path.

Christian said: “I have known Ijeoma since 2009. She was the one that approached me for a relationship and even initiated our first sexual encounter. I was too scared of my boss to start anything with her. When she travelled in December, I bought her clothes of N15, 000. I also gave her money, gave her mum and sister money too. I didn’t kill Ijeoma. I loved her so much. But if I must be killed for telling the truth, then I’m ready to die! Yes, I bought N400 acid, but it was for cleaning of the tiles in my master’s home! ”

Investigators said they would use circumstantial evidence to nail Christian in court, since he had denied killing the girl. Presently, the autopsy result states that Ijeoma died of ‘strangulation’ and residue of ‘acid were in her.’

Police now believed she was strangled by Christian and then forced to drink the acid. 

Christian has been remanded in the Ikoyi Prison by an Ebute Meta Magistrate’s Court.

Okoro, who monitored and guided the investigation, spoke with the New Telegraph, stressing, “There’s no perfect crime! No matter how well you think you had planned it, something will always give the criminal away!”

Using Christian and Ijeoma, a crime of passion as a case study, Okoro said: “Ijeoma was dating the two men and it was dangerous. She didn’t know Christian was planning to kill her. He said he won’t spend so much on her all these years, only to see her marry someone else. He said if he couldn’t have her, then no man could have her. You can’t perfect crime no matter how smart you’re!

“There must be traces left behind. Traces which any good investigator could use to unravel the crime. In the case of Christian and Ijeoma, Joy was that clue and trace. If not for Joy, nobody would have known that Christian took the girl to a hotel and abandoned her corpse there as she was dying and writhing in pain on the bed. Nobody would have known that he bought acid.”

Okoro, who was instrumental in the arrest of the killers of the legendary Cynthia Osokogu, the young student who was killed in July 2012, by some of her social media friends, explained that it was due to imperfection in crime planning and commission, that killers of Cynthia Osokogu were also nailed.

“In the case of Cynthia Osokogu, the killers meticulously removed everything from the hotel room where they killed her, but forgot the yellow vaccination card. The card is for those travelling out of the country. It was that singular yellow card that gave us the identity of Cynthia Osokogu that led to the eventual arrest of her killers.

“God used Joy to expose the imperfection in crime, just like the yellow card. Recently, a female lawyer was killed in Abuja. She was killed in her office after she received a call that her office was flooded with water. They took everything from her, including her car, but forgot her phone. That phone led to the arrest of her killers. One of them was her worker and among her last callers!

“Ody Nweze, a businessman, was kidnapped and shot nine times at the Satellite Town. It was one of the phone calls that the killers made that led to their arrest.”

Okoro urged Nigerians never to cover any crime, but to report it, because it might take time, but police would eventually unravel the case.

He argued that cases not solved by FBI simply mean that; “The investigators had not taken time to study the crime scene or case file properly! It’s the same thing in Nigeria. We can solve any case if we take time to study the case. There must always be traces. It’s only God who can perfect a mission on earth!”