Franklin Njoku, pictured above, a Senior School Certificate Examination candidate who rented a room in a house belonging to one Mr Eze, is currently in police custody after he lured his landlord's four-year-old daughter into the bush, defiled the little girl, murdered her then hanged her on a dwarf palm tree near their house.
Nigerian Tribune reports that Franklin Njoku, aged 18 years from Ohekelem in Ngorokpala Local Government Area of the state was in Uvuru community to sit for the ongoing West Africa Examination Council (WAEC) at Aboh Mbaise Secondary School, Uvuru.
Since Njoku’s village is quite a distance from Uvuru, his parents decided to rent a room to reduce the
stress of having to commute between the two communities on a daily basis. Njoku was able to secure accommodation in Eze’s compound. The Ezes received Njoku with open hands as one of their tenants. He became close to all members of the family, including the late 4 year old Gloria.
However, it was gathered that Njoku began to show special interest in little Gloria and was drawing her close to him with small gifts. The parents did not see anything out of the ordinary in this, thinking that it was just his way of appreciating the hand of fellowship extended to him by the family.
Things, however, got out of hand when one day, Njoku allegedly enticed Gloria with sweets and lured her into a nearby bush where he allegedly had carnal knowledge of the girl after which he strangled her to death.
To cover his tracks, Njoku was said to have tied a rope round the neck of the little girl and subsequently hanged the lifeless body of Gloria on a dwarf palm tree to give the impression that his victim committed suicide. However, the lid blew open on his act as a neighbour was said to have seen him while trying to hang the body of the girl on the palm tree.
The neighbour raised the alarm and the suspect was quickly rounded up by some youths in the community. He would have been lynched by the angry youth if not for the timely intervention of the victim’s family and some other prominent citizens in the area who pleaded with them to exercise restraint. He was subsequently handed over to the police.
Parading the suspect at the police headquarters in Owerri, last week, the state commissioner of police, Alhaji Abdulmajid Ali, said the suspect lured the victim into the bush, defiled her and subsequently killed her.
When questioned by newsmen, the suspect admitted to committing the crime saying he was pushed into doing it by Satan. He pleaded for leniency. However, the commissioner, while fielding questions from reporters, said that the suspect would be charged to court as soon as the police concluded their investigation into the matter.
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