How UK trained surgeon masterminded killing of billionaire in Lagos
The alleged mastermind of the killing of Anambra state-born billionaire businessman, Chief Ignatius Adunukwe, who reportedly went missing since December 1, 2019, has narrated how he led his four-man gang to perpetrate the heinous crime. Identified as Daniel Bob Ibeaji, a United Kingdom trained surgeon, the gang leader, who is currently in police custody said his lust for wealth and luxury lured him into committing the crime.
Preliminary investigation by the police revealed that the deceased had left his house at No. 14, Maduke Street, off Raymond Njoku Street, Ikoyi, on the said date for a business meeting at Ikoyi Club. Unfortunately, Adunukwe never returned from the meeting. His family had reported a case of a missing person to the police and subsequently, wrote a petition to the Assistant Inspector -General of Police in-charge of Zone 2, Ahmed Iliyasu. Police investigations paid off as the four-man gang was rounded up recently, with the suspects confessing to have killed the deceased who is the owner of Fireman Generators. Ibeaji and his gang members, Arinze Uzor Igwe (26) Solomon Cletus (30) and Isreal Obigaremu (35) led policemen and journalists to a swamp in Ogombo, Ajah on Tuesday, where the dismembered body parts of the deceased was dumped. In his confessional statement, the 42-year-old Ibeaji, an indigene of Awgu Local Government Area of Enugu state, confessed to killing Adunukwe in his hotel room, at Artican Beach Resort, Ajah.
Narrating how the gang perfected their plan to kill the deceased, Ibeaji said he met the late Adunukwe, sometimes in September 2019, when he indicated interest to buy a property owned by him in Abuja. Ibeaji, an ex-convict said: “I saw a written advert to a house at Katakpe Street in Abuja that the house was for sale. I approached the security man at the house, telling him I was interested in buying the house. “The security man called Chief Adunukwe on phone; we spoke and he said he was not in Abuja. We exchanged contacts and agreed to keep in touch for later discussion on the property. He had a function in Abuja sometimes in same September 2019, so we met and finalised discussion on the property. “We met again in Lagos in October, and we reached an agreement that the property will be sold for N900 million. I told him I will get the money ready and call him once I was ready. I called on November 30 and told him we should meet at my hotel room at African Beach Resort on December 1; that I had the N900 million cash ready. “Meanwhile, I had informed and invited Cletus, whom I met at Kuje Prison, while I was serving a jail term there and Arinze, who was a former staff of the resort to be part of the killing, promising to give them N2 million each. “So when Chief Adunukwe came into my room, Cletus and Arinze were there. After we exchanged pleasantries, we sat down, and signed the necessary documents for the purchase of the land by me. I asked Arinze and Cletus to bring out the Ghana -Must-Go bag containing the money, and I asked Adunukwe to confirm the money in the bag.
“As he bent to do so, Cletus as planned hit him from behind with an axe. He fell and while he was still trying to stand, we held him and I injected him with a poisonous substance which made him sleep off. “We strangled him and when I confirmed he was dead, we tried to pack his body in the bag, but we could not, so we had to cut his body into parts and packed them in the bag that was supposed to contain the money. The bag tore and we had to get a carton to also package the body parts, so that people won’t suspect us. “We waited till about 8pm when we noticed there was no one at the laundry, so Arinze, who is a former staff of the hotel, led us through the laundry and then the back door. Arinze and Cletus came to this bush to dispose the body. Sincerely I don’t know what came over me; it was just lust for luxury that pushed me into this crime.”
Also speaking on his involvement in the crime, Cletus denied hitting the deceased with an axe, insisting that it was Ibeaji that hit the deceased with an axe and also chopped the body into parts. Asked how he was recruited to join the gang, Cletus said it was because he had no one to help him with the funds to start a business after he was freed from the correctional facility that made him embrace the offer by the lead suspect. “I really regret my action; I only got involved in this because I needed money to start a new life after I was released from prison. Ibeaji promised me N2 million, which he was yet to give me before I was arrested,” he narrated.
