Benue State police command has paraded four suspects allegedly connected with the murder of retired Justice Margaret Igbetar at her Makurdi residence on August 22, 2023.
The suspects who were paraded yesterday at the Police Headquarters, Makurdi, the state capital by the commissioner of police, Batholomew Onyeka, narrated how they carried out the nefarious act.
The police said the suspects who conspired to commit the act confessed to the commission of the crime when a team of “Operation ZENDA” arrested them at their various hideouts.
In an interview with journalists, one of the suspects, who is a nephew to the late Justice Igbetar, Aondohemba alleged that he killed his aunt to get back the papers of his father’s property which she refused to release to him after several appeals.
Audu said he recruited Ukor to assist him in eliminating Justice Igbetar in order to get back his father’s property which they carried out in her Makurdi residence by the said Ukor who also confessed to stabbing her in the chest, back and front, with a knife after her nephew Audu hit her with a stick on both hands to weaken her.
Another suspect, who was a driver to the late justice, Barnabas Akuhwa Tor, admitted that Audu had been pleading with him to make a way for him to get the papers of his father’s property for a fee after selling it and on that fateful day, three of them came but they did not tell him that their mission was to kill her, only for him to discover that she was killed the next day.
“I was at the gate and later left for Dunamis Church. When I returned, I could not find them but on going round the compound, I saw them dragging her. When I asked, they asked me to forget it,” he said.
One of the aged suspects, Igbazenda Gbidye, a resident of Ajio in Kwande local government area who was also a cousin to Igbetar, confessed that it was Ukor that asked him to come and show him the residence of the justice as he was not conversant with Makurdi.
The decomposing body of Justice Igbetar was discovered in her kitchen on August 22, 2023.
Onyeka said the prime suspect, who planned and recruited other people to help him in killing his aunty, led a team of detectives to Adikpo, Kwande local government area where the following suspects: Igbazenda Gbidye, 63, deceased cousin, Dzungwenen Ukor, 40, Aondohemba Joseph, deceased nephew 23, Zungwenen Ukor, 40, Barnabas AkuhwaTor, 32, were arrested.
The police chief said, “These suspects admitted that Aondohemba had reported to them that his father, the brother to the justice, died and left so much property in the hands of his aunty and she had refused to hand the said property over to him.
“One Akuhwator Barnabas, 32yrs old, a driver to the deceased, who was also arrested, corroborated their statements by admitting that he was the one who allowed the gang access to the house and manned the gate for them until they finished the assassination process,” he said.
