BEVERLY HILLS, May 14, (THEWILL) – The Nigeria Police Force Command in Akwa Ibom State on Friday paraded Uduak Akpan, the suspected killer of the 26-year-old job-seeker, Miss Iniobong Umoren.
Akpan has confessed to the crime and also that he had previously lured and raped six other girls in the pretext of offering them employment.
At the funeral of the slain job-seeker on Friday, friends of Umoren and sympathisers rained curses on Uduak Frank Akpan and others behind the heinous crime.
THEWILL reports that not even the heavy downpour of Friday morning could deter the colleagues of the late graduate from the University of Uyo and beyond from attending the funeral, which was conducted by the Faith Tabernacle, Ikot Ibritam District, at her family compound, Nung Ita, Ikot Essien in Oruk Anam Local Government Area.
The suspect, who was paraded alongside his father, Mr. Francis Akpan, at the Command Headquarters, Ikot Akpan Abia, made the confession while answering questions from journalists.
Uduak, who confessed that he tricked his victims to his village in Nnung Ikono Ufio, Uruan LGA, on the pretext of offering them employment, said he had done the same thing to six girls.
But he denied killing any other victim apart from the Iniobong.
He claimed he had a mutual understanding to have carnal knowledge of the victim, saying that she only insisted on the use of condom, but that, after he produced one, she turned violent and beat him; and he then killed her in self-defence.
Akpan, a 200 level student of Public Administration at the Obong University, a private institution in Akwa Ibom State, said he hit her with a stabilizer in self defence.
He said: “What happened was that she came for the supposed job interview. I decided to use reverse psychology on her. I told her whether she can work in a farm where hard drugs are kept as a Secretary. She said that she could and that she was ready to work. When she came I told her this farm doesn’t exist; that it was just a hoax.
“I told her that before we could even start I would like to have sex with her. And she agreed. But she gave a condition that I should use a condom which I agreed to. While I removed the condom she became furious and picked the nearby stabiliser to hit me on my head. She bit my left ring finger.
“While I was bleeding, in a bid to stop her, I used the stabiliser also and hit her. And when I hit her she fell there after she died.
“Initially, I used reverse psychology on her. I have had very bad experiences with runs girls and prostitutes. I asked whether she can work in a farm where hard drugs are kept and she accepted. She even told me she took marijuana and cocaine.
“I felt that this was the best way to get revenge for the runs girls and prostitutes. I used to patronise prostitutes but now I don’t. I have had six girls before in the name of giving them jobs.
“I am not happy about what has happened. But the Commissioner of Police has assured Akwa Ibomites and the entire world that justice will take its course.”
His father, a retired civil servant, denied knowing anything about the crime until he was invited by the police, even as he admitted that the house in which the murder happened belonged to him.
Asked to comment on the kind of justice he expected in the case, the elderly man stuttered and said: “I’m not happy about what my child had done. I don’t even believe this can happen to me after I had sent them to school, tried to bring them up. Yea, justice can be done if the system so permits.”
The state’s Commissioner of Police, Mr. Amiegheme Andrew, said he decided to parade the suspect to correct the rumour that the detainee had committed suicide while in police custody.
He said the police would do their utmost to ensure that justice was not only done but seen to have been done.
About the Author
