An official with Nigeria’s secret police, the State Security Service (SSS), said the agency had taken over the investigation into the murder of a job seeker in Akwa Ibom state, Iniubong Umoren, based on a request from the state attorney general.
SSS officer Ama Okeke revealed on Thursday at a State High Court, Uyo, where he was giving his testimony as the 10th and last prosecution witness in the murder trial.
Okeke, a data analyst with the SSS, said that the state attorney general, Uko Sam, requested the exploitation of the biographical data of the late Umoren and two accused persons, Uduak Akpan and her father, Frank, to determine the involvement of those charged with the murder.
The officer was questioned by the defense attorney, Sampson Adulla.
The SSS received the request letter from the attorney general on June 8, 2021.
And on June 10 and 11, Uduak Akpan and his father, Frank, were respectively questioned where Uduak allegedly made a confessional statement, Okeke said.
Okeke said his agency’s investigation led to the discovery of the late Umoren’s cell phone and the arrest of two other suspects in Calabar, Cross River state.
The two new suspects, Okeke said, were currently being tried in State 7 High Court.
He told the court that the agency’s investigations led to the arrest of the third accused person, Akpan Bassey-Anwan in Calabar.
Ms. Bassey-Anwan is the sister of the first accused, Uduak.
Ms. Umoren, 26, was lured out of her home in April last year with a bogus job offer from her alleged killer.
“From our (SSS) findings, our conclusions that the decedent was cheated, raped, murdered, and buried in a shallow grave are not just based on what the first accused person told us (confessional statement).
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“According to our analysis of the call log, the first accused person and the deceased were in the same cell record and coordinate (location) at Nung Ikono Obio in the Uruan local government area,” Okeke said.
Mr. Okeke said the autopsy report was questioned because compared to the picture of the decedent’s exhumed body, there were many things that showed the decedent was strangled to death with several cuts noted on the decedent’s head that were not were contained in the report.
In the penultimate court session, the lawyer for the first accused objected to his “confessional statement” being admitted as evidence, alleging that it was obtained under duress.
The investigating judge, Bassey Nkanang, in his ruling on the matter, admitted as evidence the statement made by the 1st accused before the SSS on June 10, 2021.
The case was postponed to March 16, April 6, 11 and 13 for a new hearing.