Lagos State Police Command is currently investigating the circumstances surrounding the kidnap and murder of a 20-year-old undergraduate, identified as John Chinedu Okere.
Until his death, Chinedu was a 300 level Electrical Engineering student at Covenant University, Otta in Ogun State.
Chinedu had left his parent’s house in the morning of Wednesday, August 6, 2014, to a Hospital in Yaba, Lagos for medical reasons and that was the last time he was seen alive.
According to Vanguard report, the victim’s father, Jude Okere, received an SMS notifying him that Chinedu had been kidnapped and he later got a call from a hidden number who demanded N10 million ransom for the release of his son or he would be killed. They reported the case to the Divisional Police Station at Sabo, Yaba and it was later transferred to the Special Anti-Robbery Squad, SARS, Ikeja the next day where investigations commenced.
Unfortunately, two days later, his decomposing corpse was discovered in one of the rooms at ‘DE Homes Hotel’ located in Ejigbo by one of their staff.
It was gathered from some family members that one of the friends of the deceased had called on phone earlier that morning to tell him to meet him at a hotel.
A reliable source in the hotel said on that fateful day, the prime suspect, Okorocha Michael along with another young man simply identified as Okey, checked into the hotel with the name Christian, claiming to be a youth corps member who wanted to write exams and would be there from that Wednesday to Friday and that he was expecting his cousin to join him in the hotel.
“As soon as Chinedu arrived the hotel, Michael took him to the room. We don’t know what happened inside the room. However, it was later gathered that during their stay in the room, the suspect reportedly confronted the victim on some personal issues. The confrontation eventually led to a heated argument, which later led to the suspect strangulating the victim to death,” the source said.
The prime suspect, 24-year-old Okorocha Michael, a graduate of Lagos City Polytechnic, Ikeja, was later arrested in a friend’s house around Ajah area in Lagos.
The family is praying that justice prevails and the killers are brought to book.
