The kingpin in the serial killing of ladies in hotels in Port Harcourt has been captured in Bori on his flight to Akwa Ibom State, but confessions have emerged on how ladies were being trapped.
Latest clues indicated that victims are usually drugged and tied up for sex bouts to begin. Indications have shown that the killer chooses a target, often a female entrepreneur. In the latest incident, they offered N30,000 to a lady for a session in a hotel. The lady goes there. Inside, the killer drugs her, ties her up and severally assaults her sexually. Then, strangulation in a particular and consistent fashion follows.
The other method is to take a lady on a lift in a posh car, drug her in the car, and take her to a hotel when the rest is done. Another method is to use another lady as bait and trap the target in a keke (Three-wheeler automobile) and force her to a hotel and kill her. A lady just escaped from them after the bait (lady) told her, “Today, you are going to die”. She got bruises all over her legs.
A lady was fished out in a salty water near the NLNG fence when the Camry car on Peter Odili Road Monday evening smashed into the river. The driver was said to have swam away but the lady died. The family is insisting on investigations and autopsy. Some believe the lady may have forced the accident in a struggle.
The latest incident has led to an arrest of a man who invited a lady for sex at N30,000. The lady went to the police who arranged everything and the man was caught. The police said on Wednesday that the man is making ‘sense’ in his statements. The killers also ask hotel workers to fix a problem in their rooms, then strangulate them and flee.
Police in action:
Rivers State Police Command says it has arrested another suspected serial killer in Port Harcourt. Police Commissioner, Mustapha Dandaura made the disclosure on Wednesday at a press briefing.
He said the arrest was made following a complaint by a young lady at the Elekahia police station informing the police of a man who called her on phone on Monday night and offered to pay her the sum of N30,000 to have sex with her.
He said on getting the complaint, the DPO of the Elekahia police station invited the lady and asked her to call the suspect to meet with her at a particular spot where the suspect was arrested.
Dandaura said the suspect is making some confessional statements and undergoing interrogations. “So far so good; he is making a very good revelation on what has happened; why we have not paraded him is that he is still under interrogation; it is after we have gotten what we want that we are going to parade him.”
The State Police boss who also revealed that another suspect has been trailed and arrested in Kaduna advised against female indulgence in prostitution
He reiterated the need for hotel owners to install CCTVs in their hotels and advised them on taking proper documentation of guests by requesting from them either national identity card, drivers licence, or international passport, noting that such guests must submit their telephone numbers which must be verified by the receptionist.
He advised hotel owners to collaborate with the Nigeria Police in the training of their staff on relevant security tips and warned them against patronising short time guests.
All short time guests, people who are coming to book hotels for one hour or two hours should be discouraged.
He said a taskforce has been constituted to ensure compliance of the guidelines and called on the media and the general public to join hands with the police to tackle insecurity.
During the protest march, the police announced to the angry women that a man had just been arrested while allegedly setting up deathly appointment in a hotel (name withheld). Sources said a woman raised the alarm in a hotel room and the man was captured. The arrest makes it two so far but details of degree of culpability are not released, probably to avoid mob action.
King killer:
A repentant militant, Gracious David-West, has been captured. He was seen in CCTV footage after strangulating a middle-aged woman. The number of the dead has been put at 12 so far.
West was rehabilitated by OPM Ministry and assisted to get a job at FUTO but he allegedly robbed them and fled. He was allegedly rearrested in Aba, taken to court, but he found his way out.
He was being interrogated personally by Dandaura, and he said he killed seven. He claimed that he did not belong to any cult group and that he did not kill for ritual purposes.
He was said to have been arrested on Thursday, September 19, while he was on his way to Uyo, Akwa Ibom State, from Port Harcourt. In the video shared by the police, the suspect confessed to the killings. He said he met his last victim at a club and after they agreed on a payment, they left the place together to a hotel. The suspect said he and the victim ate and slept but that in the early hours of the morning, he brought out a knife and threatened to kill her with it if she shouted. “The rest” as they say, “is history”.
He claimed to live in hotels from robbery proceeds.
The number of those arrested is now four, but the police have only disclosed the identity of David-West. Ibim Semenitari, one of the campaigners, insists that the identities of the other suspects be made public too. “There must be total disclosure in the investigations’, she stated on Thursday.
