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Residents of Itu Road, Uyo, the Akwa Ibom State
capital, on Wednesday, woke to a horror sight,
following the murder of a middle-aged barber by a close
family friend who was supposedly his boss.
Steven Onowa, a graduate of Federal Polytechnic
Oko, from Anambra State, was arrested by men of the
Akwa Ibom State police command over the murder of
Daniel Bassey Solomon, his close friend and employee.
It was gathered that Onowa, who tried to escape after
allegedly killing his friend and dismembering him, was
arrested with the aid of a GSM tracking device
employed by officers and men of the Police Force.
Explaining the incident which led to the gruesome
murder of the said barber, who hailed from Uruan Local
Government Area, the state Police Commissioner, Mr
Gabriel Achong, said the culprit confessed to have
invited his friend to his house and offered him a drink he
had already poisoned.
Steven said:
“At about 3.00 a.m, I decided to kill him.
“I gave him the first cut, the guy got up; I gave
him a second one and he died and I butchered him
to parts,” the suspect confessed.
The commissioner, who confirmed that a quarrel had
been on for the past two years between the ‘butcher’ and
his victim, even as their case file was still with the
SARS department of the command, said the police
were successful in tracking down the culprit through the
assistance of his landlord, who kept contacting him on
phone, as the police kept tracking the calls.
I
“After stabbing him to death, he used matchet to
chop off his hands, head and two legs. He packed
the parts in a sack, pulled it out of the house to the
major street of Itu Road.”
Apparently tired of evacuating the corpse to a safer
place, he was said to have abandoned the deceased in a
bag, removed the vital parts, including his two hands,
which he dumped in a place along School Road and the
head, which he hid in an abandoned dump site on the
same Itu Road.
The suspect, who confessed to the crime, said he had
called his victim on phone for an urgent meeting in his
house, where he drugged his Orijin beer.
According to him, when the late Dan arrived, his killer
entertained him with the drugged beer and it was not long
before the deceased dosed off, giving his killer the
opportunity to tie him, before stabbing him to death.
The suspect’s landlord, Mr Celestine George, who spoke
to journalists at the police headquarters, Ikot Akpan
Abia, said the police was called after the incident was
reported and he had to put a call to the suspect and
demanded for the balance of his rent.
“The suspect said he was about travelling and that
he was with the balance which he would pay me
before travelling. I then asked him to meet me at
Itam junction, within the premises of a church
where I had already told the SARS men to lay
ambush for him.
“I kept calling him until he arrived at the premises
of the church where I tricked him to.
He came in
a car with three armed mobile policemen and I
hinted the men of the SARS formation, who had
laid ambush for him within the premises and he was
apprehended and handcuffed.
“The three mobile policemen were eventually
overpowered by the SARS men and the suspect
was arrested and taken to the police headquarters
at Ikot Akpanabia,” he said.
What annoyed the angry residents of Itu Road the
most, according to a neighbour, “is the fact that the
suspect, apart from being a close friend of the deceased,
was also having an affair with one of the late Dan’s
sisters.”
He disclosed that such close relationship led to the
suspect opening a barbing salon for his victim along Urua
Ekpa Road.
When interrogated by newsmen, Onowa claimed to have
killed his victim for daring to raise his voice at him over
his N750,000 he had refused to account for.
He said:
“We reported the matter to SARS about two
years ago and he agreed on a timeframe to pay up
the N750,000. Till today, he has refused to pay the
money, so when I invited him to my house that day,
he started shouting at and getting angry with me, so
I killed him. I am not dealing in body parts. I only
cut him to pieces to be able to carry him,” the
suspect added.
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