Murder of alleged prostitute: Abia police nab two

BY ANAYO OKOLI

UMUAHIA — TWO suspects are currently telling the Abia State Police Command what they know about the death of a 16-year-old girl, whose name was simply given as Esther.

The decomposing body of Esther, said to be from Ebonyi State was found in an uncompleted building around the Cattle Market, Gariki, in Lokpanta, Umunneochi Local Government Area of Abia State.

Until her death, Esther was alleged to be a girl of easy virtue, a trade she was said to have plied at the Lokpanta Cattle Market.

The suspects, Uchenna Okorie and Levi Nwankwo, are currently with the Criminal Investigation Department, CID, where they are helping the police in their investigation into what happened to Esther.

It was, however, not possible, according to the police, to know if any part of her body was tampered with because of the decomposed nature of the remains.

According to the police, on the night of Thursday, July 11, 2013, one of the suspects, Uchenna Okorie, said to be Esther’s lover, engaged the service of the other suspect, Levi Nwankwo, an Okada operator, to take Esther to his house.

Levi Nwankwo, the police said, claimed that he picked the girl as instructed by Uchenna Okorie and that when he got to Okorie’s home, he was not around but he dropped Esther there and asked her to wait for her boyfriend.

According to him, she sat under a mango tree in the compound before he left. However, some days later Esther’s decomposing corpse was found in an uncompleted building.

According to the police, it was the stench from the decomposed body that attracted the people around the area, which led to the discovery of Esther’s body. The incident, the police said, was reported by one Friday Eke.

Before then, it was reported that Esther’s  colleagues at the Cattle Market had raised alarm that they did not see her for a couple of days.

However, the clue that led to the arrest of the two suspects, the police said, was given by one Mercy Sunday, said to be a food vendor at the Gariki, who gave the information that she saw when the late Esther was carried on an Okada by Levi to Uchenna’s house.

Contacted, the Abia State Police Commissioner, Mr. Usman Tilli Abubakar, confirmed the incident and said the police would get to the root of the matter.

Abubakar said whether Esther was a prostitute or not, she deserved to live, hence the police’s on-going investigation must unravel what happened to her.