The manager of Century Home Hotel in Owehlogbo, located in the Isoko North local government area of Delta State, has admitted to killing a 22-year-old female Point-of-Sale (PoS) operator named Onoriode Bethel, who had been reported missing since December 2024.
Spokesperson of the Delta State Police Command, SP Bright Edafe, confirmed on Tuesday that the suspect, identified as Iboirode, admitted to luring Bethel into the hotel under the guise of resolving a financial dispute, killing her, and secretly burying her body within the hotel compound.
“The suspect murdered Bethel and buried her body on the hotel premises,” SP Edafe said.
Bethel, who had been missing since December 13, 2024, drew renewed Police interest following a different incident leading to the March 2025 arrest of Iboirode and other hotel staff in connection with the murder of hotel guest, Pastor Sunday Ogofohta.
SP Edafe narrated that the suspect murdered Bethel in retaliation after she accused him of using a fake bank alert to steal N10,000 from her account, according to findings from police investigations.
Though she reportedly recovered the money, he allegedly felt the incident tarnished his reputation.
The suspect’s wife also confessed to knowing about the murder.
“My husband called her into the hotel; she was a friend of his. That day, he called her on the phone and took her into a room. It was around 7pm one evening. I don’t know how he killed her because I was in our room. It was when he came out around midnight that he told me he had killed her,” she said.
Iboirode allegedly used Bethel’s mobile phone to reach out to her father to demand a ransom and also coerced her to reveal the password of her PoS device, which he used to withdraw money before eventually killing her.
“He used her phone to call her father, demanding ransom. He even used her PoS to collect the money, extracted the password from the girl before killing her. Her remains have been recovered,” Edafe added.
He added that investigation was ongoing and assured that justice would be served.
