JUST-IN: Suspected Killers Of Anambra Lawmaker Deny Collecting Ransom

Suspected kidnappers of late member representing Onitsha-North 1 State Constituency in the Anambra State House of Assembly, Hon Justice Azuka, have confessed to killing the lawmaker but denied collecting ransom.

The suspects, when paraded on Friday at the headquarters of the Anambra State Police Command, narrated that the deceased lawmaker was kidnapped on December 24, 2024 and they killed him shortly after the same night.

Admitting to initially demanding N20 million as ransom to free the slain lawmaker, they, however, denied collecting any money before killing him.

One of the nine suspects, a 30-year-old Ugochukwu, an indigene of Abia State, confessed that they beat the lawmaker to death, but his other gang members accused Ugochuwhu of shooting the late lawmaker.

The outgoing Commissioner of Police in the state, CP Nnaghe Itam told newsmen that a joint security team made up the Command’s Rapid Response Squad (RRS), the anti-kidnapping squad and Anambra State Vigilant Group (AVG) stormed the hideout of the kidnappers to arrest them.

He added that some firearms were also recovered from the suspected criminals during the operation.

Itam added that the joint security team also recovered the decomposing body of Hon. Azuka in a bush somewhere around the Second Niger Bridge in the early hours of Thursday.

He, however said that the result of autopsy on the deceased lawmaker would confirm the actual cause of his death.

The CP identified one Ugo Ekenewo, a resident of Idemili as the brain behind the abduction, saying the motive was to extort money from the victim.

Meanwhile, a member of another seven-man kidnap gang paraded alongside the lawmaker’s kidnappers, one Peter Sunday, said he did a tattoo on his chest in protest of the killing of his mother by the military after the invasion of his community on a revenge mission.

Sunday who said he hailed from Yalla area of Cross River State, said the tattoo on his body was done after some soldiers allegedly invaded his community on a revenge mission and killed his mother during the operation.

He, however, said that he came to Anambra where he joined the kidnap gang in pursuit of money.

The suspect however pleaded to be pardoned, promising that he would erase the tattoo.