The Edo State Police Command has arrested and paraded six suspects alleged to be involved in the rape and murder of 22-year-old Vera Uwaila Omozuwa – a 100-level UNIBEN Microbiology student who was brutally murdered in an RCCG church building on Wednesday, May 27, 2020.
Uwa was reading inside a Redeemed Christian Church of God parish at Edo Province 10, Ikpoba Hill, Benin, when she was attacked by men who raped and murdered her in cold blood.
After more than three months of investigation, the Edo State Police Command finally arrested six suspects which overwhelming evidence from the police investigation connected to the murder.
The six suspects arrested and paraded in connection to the brutal rape and murder of Vera Uwaila Omozuwa are:
a. Nelson Ogbebor
b. Akato Valentine
c. Mrs Tina Samuel
d. Mrs Mary Ade
e. Nosa Osabohien and
f. Collins Ulegbe.
According to media reports, a breakthrough in the investigation came after the police traced the phone of the deceased to one of the suspects, Nosa Osabohien.
Nosa who claims to be a phone repairer said he bought late Uwaila Omozuwa’s phone from the prime suspect, Collins Ulegbe.
Nosa then led the police to arrest Collins who confessed to having directly participated in the murder. Collins told the police that he used the fire extinguisher in the church to hit late Vera Uwaila Omozuwa after the other suspects took turns to rape her. He gave the names of the other members of his gang to the police.
Collins told the police that one Mary Ade gave them N1 million to kill the suspect and then use a handkerchief she gave them to clean the blood from the private part of the deceased.
Mary Ade, the lady who allegedly gave the suspects N1 million to kill Uwa was arrested.
Another suspect, Tina Samuel, was also arrested for allegedly obstructing the police from arresting her son, Lucky, who is one of the suspects.
The State Commissioner of Police, Johnson Kokumo, who paraded the suspects, said a post-mortem conducted on late Vera Uwaila Omozuwa confirmed she was raped.
Commissioner Johnson Kokumo said:
“The matter was a great concern to the Inspector General of Police, IGP, Muhammed Adamu who sent to us here in Benin, homicide experts to work with our policemen at the state criminal investigation department. What we are seeing today, is a result of the uniting efforts of the police to get at the root of the crime and today, I announce to you and make public through this medium that the perpetrators have been arrested.”
