‘Why I killed my girlfriend’s mother'

A 39-year-old dismissed policeman, Christian Ogwu, who allegedly shot dead his girlfriend’s mother, Veronica Obiejiogo, says he took the action because the woman advised  her daughter, Blessing Obiejiogo against  marrying him.

The 45-year-old woman was shot dead by the suspect in the presence of her children at their residence in Otolokpo community in Ika North Local Government Area of Delta State.

Ogwu allegedly fled to Port Harcourt, Rivers State capital, after the shooting.

Acting on a petition from the family of the deceased, the Inspector General of Police, Adamu Mohammed, directed his operatives at the IRT, headed by Deputy Commissioner of Police, Abba Kyari, to go after the suspect and bring him to book.

The suspect was eventually arrested, following a tipoff in a commercial bank in Port Harcourt, five months later.

He alleged that the deceased made his girlfriend to abort the three month pregnancy she had for him, and also  cancelled their marriage ceremony scheduled for December 27, 2018, after spending a lot of money on his girlfriend.

However, another source who pleaded for anonymity said  that the deceased discouraged her daughter from going on with the marriage with Christian following information that he was a fraudster.

Confessing, the suspect said: “ I am  a graduate of Marine Engineering at the University of Benin. I was enlisted into the Nigeria Police Force in the year, 2000, but was dismissed after some armed robbers stole a smoke gun that was assigned to me at a checking point.  My Force Number was 371416 and I was trained at the Police College in Ikeja, Lagos,  but I was posted to Iho Police Division at the Edo State Police Command, where I served for five years before I was dismissed because a motorbike rider snatched the smoke pistol I was holding at a checking point.’’

“ In the course of doing my fraud business, I met a girl known as Blessing Obijeogoh, at Ogwuachukwu Polytechnic Delta State and she was a student of that school. She told me she was single and we entered into a relationship and in the process she became pregnant and she aborted the pregnancy.

‘’She told me that she could not have a child for me because I wasn’t known to her family, so in April, 2018 I went for  formal introduction and her family asked  me to come back for a more elaborate introduction ceremony and then they will issue me the list for her marriage.

‘’On September 7, 2018, I went there again with my family and we had the ceremony and I got the list. In October of that same year, she informed me that she was pregnant and I said no problem that we would have to hurry up the marriage. We then fixed December 27, 2018 as the date of the marriage and I gave her money to buy cloths we would use for the marriage”.

“On December 5, 2018, she called me and said she was on her way to Asaba, where I resided and after waiting for her for a long time, I started calling her and she wasn’t picking her calls.

‘’Then one of her brothers known as Friday informed me that Blessing was sick and she was at the hospital in Asaba with her mother and she had complications from  abortion of the pregnancy.

‘’I went to the hospital to see the doctor but I was refused access to Blessing and her mother.  I noticed something was fishy, and I called her to know what was going on and she told me that she was in Asaba, in her friend’s place.

‘’I went there but I couldn’t see her and I waited all day without seeing her and I stopped looking for her. Surprisingly on December 21, 2018, she called me again and informed me that she had travelled to Lagos and I became very angry and confused believing that Blessing and her mother took me for a fool. ‘’Then I  met one of my friends known as Steven and I narrated why I was going to him and Steven then advised me to calm down, but I was so angry and I needed to deal with the girl and her mother.

‘’ I asked Steven to get me a gun with two live cartridges which he did and I paid him the sum of N10,000. On December 26, 2018, which was supposed to be the eve of our marriage, I took the gun to Blessing’s village, I investigated and I discovered that she was in town and when I called her she said she was in Lagos.

He added: ‘’I went to a shop close to her shop where I bought a bottle of dry gin and sachets of Tramadol and I took them at once to get inspiration so I won’t be scared and have a change of mind. While I did this, I sighted her mother and her younger brother walking towards my direction, and I went to them and brought out my gun and shot Blessings mother and I watched her die from the wound before I zoomed off on the bike I rode.’’