A 29-year-old man paid the highest price to tell his friend about a heavy sum his South African elder brother sent him back home in Nigeria to complete his (elder brother’s) housing project.

Moses, his friend and colleague, allegedly murdered Abuchi Wisdom Nwachukwu after he informed the latter that his elder brother had sent him the sum of N13 million to complete his housing project.

Nwachukwu, a native of Isiala-Mbano, Imo State, was allegedly hacked to death by Moses on January 7 , 2020, during a night shift at the table water company where they worked in Auchi, Edo State, after which he took over the phone and ATM card from Nwachukwu.

Moses also proceeded to behead the lifeless body of Nwachukwu so that it would be recognized, dumping the headless body in a bush near the company.

After getting rid of Nwachukwu, Moses took the latter’s phone and ATM card from Nwachukwu ‘s account to some internet fraudsters in Auchi who helped him withdraw the amount of N2.2 million.

Moses then approached different POS points in town to withdraw various sums of money.

Police were confused when they could not recognise him but Nwachukwu’s headless body. They took the body to the mortuary while the relatives of Nwachukwu in Imo State and his brother in South Africa were worried about his sudden disappearance and their inability to reach him over the phone.

His brother based in South Africa was said to have written a petition to police inspector general, Adamu Mohammed, months after he was unable to find his brother or hear from him. Intelligence Response Team (IRT) operatives led by Abba Kyari, a deputy police commissioner, swung into action to unravel the mystery behind the disappearance of Nwachukwu.

It was gathered that weeks into their investigation IRT operatives were able to trace the POS transactions Moses did with Nwachukwu’s ATM cards to Benin, Ore and Auchi parts of Edo State.

They later arrested him in a hotel in Auchi where he was hiding.

Upon interrogation, Moses admitted killing Nwachukwu. He also led IRT operatives to arrest suspected internet fraudsters—Yusuf Sagiru, Tony Bright and Terence Okochukwu—as well as businessman Jahswill Ogbonnaya, who were said to have helped Moses to pull out the sum of N6 million from the account.

Upon interrogation, Moses a 27-year-old native of Auchi, said his friend’s ghost had been hunting him since the day he killed him.

The Auchi Polytechnic graduate of Mechanical Engineering said: “I work in a table water company in Abely area of Auchi, and I have been working in that company in the last four years.

“When Nwachukwu got a job in the factory, I was the person who taught him how to operate the machine, so we became very close friends.

“While we were working, Nwachukwu told me about his brother who lives in South Africa and how he has been sending money to build his house for him.

“He showed me the alert for the N13 million his brother had just sent to him, saying that he would be travelling to his village to carry out the project. I felt jealous and I decided to steal the money.

“Since we were friends, I tricked him and collected his phone password. I went through it and found the PIN for his ATM card.

“Few days before the day he would be travelling, we worked on the same shift. I lured him outside the company, stabbed him with a knife and killed him.

“I dragged his body into the bush, and because I don’t want people to recognise him easily, I cut off his neck and buried it. Then I took his ATM card to some fraudsters. I gave it to one Yusuf and told him that I needed to hack the account.

“We withdrew N2.2 million from the account. I had trouble with Yusuf because he and the people he brought in wanted to cheat me.

“I killed him on January 8, 2020 and travelled to Ore and Benin City. I stayed in several hotels and was carrying different women, but Nwachukwu’s spirit started disturbing me.

“Whenever I want to sleep, the boy’s spirit will appear to me and will be crying. The girls that were with me would run away, saying that I want to use them for money ritual.”

 

More update coming