The escape of ritual murder suspect

Penultimate week, the escape from police custody of Ifeanyi Dike, a suspect earlier paraded by the Rivers State Police Command for the rape and killing of Miss Victory Chikamso, an eight-year-old girl residing in the same compound with him, caused considerable apprehension across the nation. The suspect, a 200 level student of the University of Port Harcourt, River State, had earlier confessed his guilt, saying that the eight-year-old died when he was cutting off those parts of her body, namely her eyes, private part and some fingers, that were needed for the money ritual that he wanted to do.

Dike was reported to have escaped shortly after writing his statement when the Investigation Police Officer, one Sergeant Johnbosco Okoroeze, failed to handcuff and lead him back to his cell immediately after the statement. The suspect was apparently more alert and athletic than all the police personnel around him, as all the shouts of ‘hol’ am!” (hold him!) yielded no fruit. A moment of justice quickly became a moment of comedy, and the felon disappeared into the night. After all, he had reportedly written his statement with the aid of a torchlight!

But as the state police command said it later discovered, Sergeant Okoroeze’s act was in fact premeditated. The state Police Commissioner, Zaki Ahmed, said: “Evidence tendered during the trial revealed that he unilaterally, in a premeditated action, released the suspect to run before raising alarm of his escape. Information of his (Dike’s) alleged escape from an IPO in the course of statement-taking did not only leave a sour taste in the mouth of the command, but also created a dent in my avowed fight against crime and criminality. I am totally committed to seeing that the suspect is re-arrested and any person involved, regardless of status, in aiding the escape of the suspect will be arrested and, if found wanting, dealt with in accordance with the law.” Okoroeze was subsequently arraigned for being an accessory to murder, perverting the course of justice and permitting the escape of a murder suspect. He has been remanded in prison.

Naturally, Dike’s escape generated outrage in the state, with a large number of youths taking to the streets in protest. What particularly irked the protesters was that it was their local vigilance team that apprehended Dike when he attempted to dispose of the body. And if a suspected ritual killer that was handed over to the police could escape from custody, how was the police even going to persuade them that it could protect ordinary citizens? Dr Ernest Mezuwuba, the father of the victim, urged the police to ensure that the suspect was re-arrested to face the law. We find it tragic that this plea became necessary. The least that the police and in fact the Nigerian government owe the nation is to ensure that justice is done in this case. In this connection, we find it alarming that only a single policeman has been dumped in detention by the Rivers State police command. No police sergeant acting alone and without the connivance of fellow partners in crime could have pulled the kind of stunt that Okoroeze allegedly pulled in the reported circumstances. CP Zaki Ahmed must walk his talk: Okoroeze’s accomplices must be fished out and dealt with accordingly.

It is indeed frightening that university students are now returning to ritualism, actively embracing a dark world that society is supposed to have left behind and thus defeating the very essence of their education. If the values of industry, patience, perseverance and rational thinking are no longer attractive to the supposed leaders of tomorrow, just how can the nation’s future be assured? In any case, since the criminally-minded members of society, in particular the youths, began engaging in the so-called money ritual, how many of them have come anywhere near the likes of Facebook founder, Mark Zuckerberg or Aliko Dangote in material wealth? How exactly has the mindless wastage of human flesh dubbed money ritual turned around the lives of those encumbered therein? Indeed, what would make anyone who claims sanity to rape an eight-year-old and then mutilate her body as a precondition for sudden wealth?

To be sure, it is saddening that anyone would need a torchlight to write a statement in a police headquaters, but that is the reality of a nation where even the office of the president is not safe from rats. The government must see it as a bounden duty to equip the police with the necessary facilities while also tackling the  corruption and systemic rots within the system.

We call on the police headquarters, the Rivers State government and indeed the Federal Government to rise to the occasion this time around and ensure that Ifeanyi Dike gets his just desserts. We commiserate with the family of the victim. May the Lord grant them the fortitude to pull through at this hour of need.