However, behind the visible business of buying and selling shoes, the 52-year-old indigene of Ngo-Okpala in Imo State, has other secret criminal ventures involving kidnapping and killing of his victims.
The neighbours of Anthony were stunned when he recently led a detachment of policemen to his house located at Umuebule 1 Community, Etche Local Government Area, Rivers State. His house is well-built.
It is a flat of about four bedrooms surrounded by a high fence. In fact, the fence, which is secured with a gate, made it impossible for neighbours to know what went on in the compound of Anthony. Little wonder, nobody around suspected Anthony and his bloody enterprise.
But within the compound is a pit dug very close to the fence and
covered with columns of concrete. Innocent people, who entered his
compound, thought it was a mere soak away pit. Only Anthony knew that
the pit was not meant for sewage alone but burial ground for victims of
his illicit trade.
In his compound, he confessed to kidnapping people, strangling them and
dumping their remains in the pit. Most of his victims’ bodies had
completely decayed remaining their skulls. But one was still fresh when
the Commissioner of Police in Rivers State, Joseph Mukan, engaged some
youths in the area to pull them out.
During interrogation, Anthony confessed luring his victims to his house
under the guise of either buying their goods or selling his to them. He
would make his victims feel at home in his living room after offering
them a special seat. He would even offer them drinks. But in the
process, Anthony said he would go behind them, held their necks with his
hands and twist them.
After confirming that they were dead, Anthony said he would drag them to
his well-secured compound and threw them into the pit. Though he said
he lived with his wife and four children, it was discovered that the
wife of Anthony fled the compound before nemesis caught up with him
while two of his grown children were no longer living with him.
Anthony said he started kidnapping and murder in February, adding that
he had so far killed four of his business partners. He said three of his
victims were Togolese while one came from Aba in Abia State.
He said: “I sell shoes. How I get them is I will always lure them to
bring shoes to my house. When they bring them I will tell them to sit
down. When they had sat down I will go through their back and strangle
them to death. I have been doing this for awhile now.
“I collect their shoes when I kill them. I also get money. After I did
this last one, police started investigating it and they started looking
for me. One of my customers called me to come when I got there police
arrested me.”
He added: “I live here with my family. I kidnap people and kill
them. I strangle them. I invite and bring them to my house. Some are my
business partners. I ask them to come and supply me goods or to come to
my house and buy from me.
“They bring their shoes to my house. I started this February this year.
Since then, I have kidnapped and killed four people. I kill them and
throw them into the soak away pit. My wife goes to the market always.
And people can’t see me because the area is fenced”.
Anthony said he started kidnapping because of poverty adding that he had
so far received N800,000 from his victims’ families. The last operation
that blew his cover involved his business partner, Ajumiene Ofor, from
Aba in Abia State.
A source, who spoke in confidence, said the victim supplied him shoes
worth N500,000 on credit. Anthony told his victim to come to his house
for payment. On arrival at his house, the man sent the address to his
wife in Aba.
The source said: “The discovery was made when a trader from Aba in
Abia State left the address and phone number of the suspect with his
wife upon departure to collect the sum of N500,000 being cost of goods
supplied to the suspect on credit.
“After waiting for 48 hours without any sign of her husband back the
wife of the victim reported to the police, who launched investigations
into the matter. On interrogation the suspect took the police to his
house where fresh corpses were recovered from a 20-fit soak-away pit
exclusively dug for dumping of corpses.
“While the wife of the suspect has since abandoned her four children and
ran away, two grown up children of the suspect have also taken to their
heels whereas two little children of the suspect were demonstrating how
their evil father strangled his victims before them. They hinted that
their father sternly warned them not to tell anyone of his evil act else
he would also apply same treatment to them”.
Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), Nnamdi Omoni, said: “Operatives
of the Aniti-Kidnapping Unit, in a Sting Operation on 29/6/20202 at
about 1330hrs, arrested a notorious kidnapper and serial killer, one
Anthony Ndubuisi ‘m’ from Ngo-Okpala in Imo State but resides at
Umuebulu Etche LGA.
“The suspect who was arrested through intelligence led policing, on
interrogation confessed to have carried out several kidnappings and
killings of his unsuspecting victims, including three Foreign Nationals
and a Nigerian. The recent, being the kidnapping and killing of one
Ajumiene Offor who was lured from Aba to his house, for a business
transaction but kidnapped and killed on 9/6/2020.
“In the course of investigation, the suspect led Operatives to his house
at Umuebulu, where he pointed to a Septic Tank that contained the
bodies of his victims. On exhumation, we recovered three human skulls
and the decomposing body of his recent victim. They have been evacuated
and taken to the mortuary for autopsy.
“Investigation is ongoing and efforts have been intensified to arrest
other members of his deadly gang. In the wake of his arrest, two Pump
action guns and some Cartridges were recovered”.
Commissioner of Police, Joseph Mukan, condemned the incident and
declared total war against perpetrator of heinous crimes in the state.
He further advised members of the public to increase their security
consciousness and report all suspicious characters and movements to the
police.
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Source: The Nation
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