By MARTHA NUHU

The police command in Plateau says it has arrested one Samson Eze, 31, for allegedly killing tricycle riders and dumping the bodies in a septic tank.

Eze, a father of two and a resident of Kampala in Jos North, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) that he usually chartered the tricycles to particular destinations only to kill the owners.

He claimed that hardships led him into committing the crime.

“I started committing this crime sometime in December 2021. At about 7 p.m., I boarded a motorcycle at Agingi to take me to my brother’s house located in the area. When we got close to the house I asked him to drop me off.

“Immediately I dropped, I used a stick I hid inside my jacket to hit him behind his head.

“When I made sure he was dead, I dragged him into my brother’s house and dumped him inside the soak away pit.

“I took the motorcycle home and used it briefly for commercial purposes but it was not yielding any good money.

“I returned to the same area sometime in January and boarded a tricycle this time around, when we got to the same spot, I dropped off and used a stick to hit him on the head until he died.

“I deposited his body in the same septic tank and took the tricycle home, I repeated it again after a week and dispossessed a man of his tricycle but this time the man fought me hard and left plenty blood marks on the floor.

“After hitting them, I use a polythene bag to wrap their heads to suffocate them and also to prevent blood from dropping on the ground.

“I thereafter pour a chemical inside the soak away pit to prevent odour from emanating from it which can attract attention.

“I built the house but do not live in it. I rear pigs and dogs in the house, I filled the soak away with water and covered it.”

Eze told NAN that each time his wife asked where he got the tricycles, he lied that he either borrowed them or got them on hire purchase.

He said that whenever she tried to question the strange odour he always returned home with, he would beat her up and cause a scene.

At the time of his arrest on Jan. 22, two tricycles, a motorcycle and two military uniforms were recovered from his house.

On the army uniforms found in his possession, the suspect told NAN that he bought a pair from a friend and he claimed he got the other when he tried enrolling in the Nigerian Defence Academy some years ago.

Eze, who denied using the uniforms to commit any crime, explained that he kept them for no reason.

He added that he owned a drug store some years ago which collapsed and later went into computer programming which failed as well, the events which he said led him into a life of crime.

A resident of the Agingi community who does not want his name disclosed told NAN that the elder brother of the suspect, found the bodies in the septic tank when he visited the house and raised an alarm.

He said the brother noticed blood trail to the septic tank, which led him to the discovery of the bodies.

He added that the brother also suspected Eze because he did not have a visible means of livelihood yet, spends a lot.

Plateau Police Public Relations Officer Ubah Ogaba confirmed that the suspect was arrested by the police command for the crime and has been in custody.

Uba explained that the police recovered some exhibits from him and investigation was still ongoing.

He said the suspect would soon be arraigned in court. (NAN)

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