Police absolve suspects caught with corpse of three-year old

 BY STEPHEN UKA  

The Abia State Command, has exonerated two suspects, Chibuike Anibuife, 25; and Jonathan Nwogu, 45, allegedly caught at Osisioma junction Aba with the corpse of a three- year old girl concealed in a sack.

The state Police Public Relations Officer, Geoffrey Ogbonna, told SUNDAY PUNCH that the suspects had been thoroughly investigated and found to be innocent , as the corpse was genuinely handed over to them by the father of the deceased to bury for him.

The state’s Commandant of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps. Mr. Andy Dateer, had last week paraded the suspects, saying that his men on patrol rescued them from being lynched by a curious mob at Aba when the content of the sack was discovered to be a lifeless body of a child.

NSCDC had said the mob was infuriated by the strange content of the sack and demanded explanations from the men but their failure to provide satisfactory answer made the mob descend on them.

The NSCDC boss said the suspects would be handed over to the police for proper investigations, explaining that his men only rescued them from the angry mob so that the truth of their mission could be unraveled.

The prime suspect, Nwogu said he was contacted by the father of the deceased to bury the corpse in a “ boro pit” at a fee of N2000, Anibuife said he only wanted to assist Nwogu on the request of a man from the mob.

The police said detectives later went to the hospital and confirmed that the deceased died while receiving treatment, saying they would soon be released.

According to police, the father of the deceased, Mike Ogbonna, returned from Togo with the sick child for medication , but handed the corpse over to his elder brother , Ikeoha Ogbonna for burial , and returned to Togo to re- join the family.