Suspects: we drugged Cynthia before killing her

.....BEFORE a shocked audience of reporters and policemen, two youths, who are cousins, spoke yesterday of how they killed Cynthia, daughter of Major-Gen. Frank Osokogu.
Odera Ezekiel (23) and Okwoma Nwabufor (33), suspects in the alleged murder of the model, are 300 level Accounting undergraduates of the Anambra State University and the University of Lagos (UNILAG).
They said their intention was to rob the late Cynthia whom they believed was coming into Lagos with a large sum of money but when they did not find enough on her, they beat her to death.
According to them, she died as they struggled with her to take all they found on her.
They said when the late Cynthia arrived in Lagos, they checked her into a hotel where she was drugged with 10 tablets of Rohypnol, which they injected into three packs of Ribena juice which they served her in her room.
Ezekiel and Nwabufor met the late Cynthia through a Blackberry group chat. They got close and decided to invite her over, thinking that as a businesswoman she would be coming with alot of cash.
Although the suspects claimed that they did not rape the deceased, pictures taken by the police showed that they may have.
One of the pictures of her private part taken at a close range showed traces of semen on it. Used condoms littered the hotel room, the police said.
Besides, there is a picture showing the suspects tied up the late Cynthia’s mouth and hands. They also chained her legs.
Ezekiel and Nwabufor claimed that the deceased came with a vibrator (sex toy), and that she used the condoms on the toy.
They also confessed to have robbed and raped several other girls.
Narrating his role in the murder, Nwabufor said: “It was a mistake. I invited Cynthia who is my friend, and in the process I hit her and she died in the hotel.
“She came in from Abuja on Sunday morning, July 21. I was trying to dislodge her by tying her and I hit her and she died.
“I tied her because I didn’t want her to know I was escaping from the hotel. We had a mutual agreement for her to come over. I met her on Blackberry group chat, so she was coming to buy stocks for her boutique in Abuja. We had a disagreement. I didn’t rape her; it was the handwork of the devil. I wanted to run because I know I have committed a serious sin against her.
“I thought she had things on her, such as money that I could collect. So, in the process of struggling, I tied her with cellotape and a chain. I also tried to make her not to shout by holding her excessively.
“I was not the only one, it was myself and my cousin who tied her and beat her.
“I invited her and in the process of the disagreement we felt like robbing her of all she has. The condom that was seen in the room is something personally not for her. I used it on the sex toy she has with her. She came with a sex toy, so I inserted the condom on the sex toy and later dropped it there. I didn’t sleep with her.
“If the Police test the condom forensically, it will prove that I didn’t use it on her. She was with me for over 12 hours.
Nwabufor spoke about how the late Cynthia was drugged. He said: “The drug was inside the Ribena I offered her. The Ribena was bought by my cousin and we mixed the drug, Rohypnol, inside the Ribena by injection.
“It was three packets of Ribena but she didn’t finish the three. My cousin said about 10 tablets of Rohypnol was mixed in the three Ribenas. After she took some, she started feeling weak.”
He also spoke about his background and escapades.
“I am a student of UNILAG, 300level Accounting (DLI). This is the first time I’m having a murder case, but I have used the drugs about four times on girls, before Cynthia, but none of the girls died.
“I sleep with them and after they take the drink, they will lose memory of everything that happened to them,” Nwabufor said, adding:
“The hotels I used to go to include Benny, Chelsea, Opera-Mini. And the hotel I took her to was Cosmilla Hotel, (Lakeview Estate, Phase 1, Amuwo-Odofin). I live on Sixth Avenue, but I use Festac because that is where hotels are.
“I am not feeling good about it because I didn’t bargain to kill her, in the first instance. It was just unfortunate and an accident.”
Ezekiel said: “I am a 300level Accountancy student from Anambra State University, Awka. The morning it happened, he (Nwabufor) called me and told me to come to the hotel and help him bind the girl so that we could dispossess her of her belongings, so I came into the hotel that morning and helped him in binding her. In the process of binding the girl, she tried to struggle and we maltreated and rough handled her and she passed on in the process.
“I didn’t hit her with anything; we had no weapon. He (Okwuoma) said he wanted to run with her things.
“I have not been doing it; he just called me. I live at Ojo Barracks, not inside the cantonment. Okwuoma was the one who told me about the drug. He asked me to buy Ribena, which I bought from a shop. I was there when she died because when he told me she was not breathing, I touched the girl and told him she was breathing, then I left the hotel.
“Later, he called me and said he had not heard from her for a long time and had not seen her online. I was in school when they came on Sunday and arrested me”.
Commissioner of Police Umar Manko, who paraded the suspects, said, “On July 22, somewhere in Festac, a young lady was found in a hotel dead, chained and tied. We were worried.
“Somebody called the receptionist of the hotel to say that they should go and take a dead body or “the bastard” away from the room and on getting to the room, the young lady was found dead and her identity not known.
“So the police had to trace the killers through that number that called the receptionist, until we got her passport number from the internet.
“Through the immigration, we were able to link her up and then established her identity. From the footage of the CCTV, we discovered that two young men came into the hotel with the lady, and came out after a while. So, we started from that number and were able to link the young men we saw on the footage of the CCTV.
“They were arrested and they confessed to have killed the young lady. We asked them why and they said they chatted with her on the internet and discovered she was a business woman. So, as she was coming to Lagos to buy her stocks, they felt she would have enough money.
One of them gave her a ticket from Abuja to Lagos and gave her accommodation in that hotel. After injecting a drug inside Ribena, they gave her, it knocked her off and so they decided to go into the business she came for but, unfortunately, they could not find much money on her. They struggled with her before she collapsed and was killed in the process.
“Both suspects are cousins from Anambra State and we are told it was not the first time they have done it but we have not been able to establish vividly if their victims were killed.
“We are trying to go round the other hotels they have used, it is a very long investigation and I think we still have much to uncover but because of insinuations from the press, we felt we won’t keep quiet longer than necessary. That was why we invited the media to parade them,” he said.

...Curled, The Nation..