A police superintendent Samuel Ezeugo and a civil servant Kufre Effiong have narrated their links to Frank Akpan, the suspected killer of the Akwa Ibom job-seeker, Iniubong Umoren.
Newswire had reported on Monday that it obtained records from the suspect’s mobile network provider which shows he had telephone conversations with Messrs Ezeugo and Effiong, a revelation that has raised suspicion of conspiracy.
Ezeugo heads the police division that supervised Akpan’s arrest of while Effiong, a civil servant at the Federal Ministry of Niger Delta, is a close relation of the suspect.
They told Premium Times that they were only communicating with Akpan to facilitate his arrest.
Akpan allegedly lured Ms Umoren to his house on the pretext of offering her a job. He allegedly sexually assaulted her, killed and buried her in a shallow grave in his father’s compound, according to the police.
Although recordings of his conversation with the others were not obtained, Newswire suggested connivance among the people Akpan spoke with during the period.
The civil servant told the online newspaper: “This boy is related to me in a way. He is my little cousin that did this thing and I didn’t want my hands to be connected with this.”
Speaking further, he said he played a role in the arrest of Akpan carried out on April 30.
“That boy contacted me on the 30th (of April) while in my brother’s house who is the chairman of Uruan local government. They were all seated in his place with the DPO (Ezeugo) and DSP when the boy called, demanding for where his father was because the father had been arrested previously.
“I told the DPO that this boy had contacted me. The DPO said we should see how we can bring him. That was exactly what I did,” he added.
On his part, Ezeugo said he had no prior knowledge of the suspect until a report was made on April 29.
“If I’m in talk with him before or after arrest, does it make any sense?”
“Who arrested the young man you are talking about? I did. If I had spoken to him before or after his arrest, does it make any sense? When you are doing an investigation, you can use any means, provided it is legally fit, to trace a suspect,” he said.
Akwa Ibom police spokesperson Odiko MacDon told the newspaper on Tuesday that the suspect was is still in custody and would be arraigned when courts resume nationwide.
