By; BAYO AKAMO, Ibadan.
The Nigeria Army on Wednesday paraded six suspects arrested in connection with the killing of the Commandant of Army Command Secondary school, Apata, Col Anthony Okeyim in December last year.
Already, the arrested suspects and the evidences allegedly linking them to the murder were handed over to the police by the Army authority for further investigation.
The six suspects included a former student of the school who was expelled over an alleged N70, 000 theft.
The Deputy Director, Public Relations, 2 Division of the Nigerian Army, Col Timothy Antigha, and Commander, 2 Division Provost Group, Col Abdullahi Ibrahim while briefing journalists in Ibadan on the outcome of the investigation into the murder of Col Okeyim, named the arrested suspects as Solomon Agada Emmanuel, 20, Bibisoye Kehinde, 27 Taiwo Adeniyi, 34; Ewere Andrew, 25, Ephraim Obi, 38 and Udobata Onusa, 28.
“I am pleased to inform you that a breakthrough has been made in the investigation. We have in our custody six individuals, who we have reasons to believe played varying roles in the killing of the late senior officer in his residence,” he said.
Col Antigha told journalists that investigations revealed that it was the Command school’s former student, Emmanuel, that contracted others to join in the murder of Col Okeyim, saying, “on the day the late senior officer was killed, it was reported that his cell phone was stolen. The phone, a Samsung X4 phone was found in the possession of Emmanuel. He claimed he got the phone from the third suspect, Adeniyi”.
The Army Deputy Director, Public Relations said “Adeniyi also stated that on the night of December 11, 2016, he and other suspects named above went to Command Secondary School, Apata in ash coloured Toyota Camry car, belonging to the fifth suspect, Obi” with “the second suspect, Kehinde, fondly called Efrebor confirmed that Obi’s car was used for the murder”.
Col Antigha stressed further that “he admitted that he was the one who switched off the generator in the deceased officer’s house before the murder. He described the late senior officer vividly, as well as the dress the deceased officer wore at the time of their attack”.
Speaking further, the Army spokesman said the third suspect, Adeniyi claimed that he was notified of the plot to attack the late senior officer by Kehinde, and that “the fourth suspect, Andrew confirmed that he was with the second, third, fifth and sixth suspects during the murder of the late senior officer.”
“The fifth suspect provided the logistics for the operation, as his car, an Ash coloured Toyota Camry was used to move the gang to and from Command Secondary School, Apata. The sixth suspect, Onusa was mentioned by others as being a member of the gang.”
The Commandant, Col Okeyim, it will be recalled was found dead in his house within the Command school premises in Apata area of Ibadan on December 12, 2016.
