Port Harcourt, the capital of oil-rich Rivers State in Nigeria’s Niger Delta region, is reeling from the activities of serial killers whose stock-in-trade is to lure their female victims to hotel rooms, drug them, sexually abuse them, and then strangle them with white cloth. It has turned out that most of the ladies were either entrepreneurs selling items or working as receptionists.
The police in the state put the number of strangulated women at eight but private sources put it at 11 with one in Omoku, headquarters of Ogba/Egbema/Ndoni local council area of the state.
The trend surfaced two months ago when the dead body of a female appeared at the popular Garrison Roundabout on Aba Road near the roadside park.
BusinessDay investigations revealed that a married lady complained that her husband was not treating her well financially. Her unmarried friend allegedly appealed to her to abort the night hangout she threatened to do. The married lady was said to have refused but rather handed her items including phone to her friend and went into the roads. The next morning, her corpse lay among the lilies.
Soon, dead bodies of ladies began to turn up in hotel rooms in the city. The body count began to rise on daily basis as the signature tune of the killings emerged: strangulation with white cloth, sex abuse, and drugging.
The hotels did not seem to have any explanations that could intelligently lead to anything. Citizens wondered why footages were not telling the people anything, a matter that exposed the big hotels as not having security cameras. The police warned and appealed but more deaths occurred without footages. The women groups got angry and launched a mass protest. The police clamped down on hotels and next, footages began to appear.
Yahoo boys are prime suspects
The new development has been alleged to be connected with the activities of Yahoo boys, young men who con rich men with juicy offers of business deals. The understanding is that the dupes do not operate with ordinary tongues but perform human sacrifices that make their victims to operate mindlessly.
Some who operated with ordinary intelligence have confessed that they did not record huge successes until they joined in bringing human parts, especially parts of females. This seems to create a burgeoning human parts market in eastern Nigeria. Owerri, the Imo State capital, seemed to be the main city until the security agencies launched a crackdown.
Many believe the strangulation system with white handkerchief is a ritual from the usual Yahoo boys. The fact that the man declared wanted is from a university in Owerri does not help matters.
Government, police react
The Rivers State government and the police command have risen to intervene in the maddening killing of ladies in hotels in the state capital, Port Harcourt, but many say the action that is coming a bit late.
The government and police may have been rustled into action by the mass reaction of over 77 women groups led by Rotary and female journalists who marched through the city and handed memos of demand for action. The government said it has laid traps for the killers and the police followed up with three arrests and declaring one man wanted.
Coalition against hotel killings
A coalition of about 77 women groups (women journalists, lawyers, and women doctors in Rivers State) embarked on a peaceful protest in demand of action against the recent killing of women in Rivers State.
The diverse women groups who started their protest on Wednesday from the secretariat of Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) also observed a one-minute silence for the women/girls that were strangled and murdered recently in Port Harcourt hotels and its environs, while praying against the killers.
The group of women took their protest to the state government house, Directorate of State Security (DSS), and Rivers State House of Assembly. Few heads of the women groups that protested spent energy condemning the act of strangling and killing of these female victims. They said every human (including women) has the right to life and every human must respect that.
At the Government House, the protesters presented a copy of their petition to the Secretary to the Rivers State Government (SSG), Tammy Wenike Danagogo, who received them on behalf of Governor Nyesom Ezenwo Wike.
Presenting the petition, President of Rotary Club of Port Harcourt South, Rita-Marley Idonoh, said women in the state were worried over the killings.
Idonoh called on security agencies in the state to step up their operations and ensure that the perpetrators of the act are arrested. She demanded for a public apology from the Rivers State Police Command for referring to the young women killed by the serial killers in the state as prostitutes.
“We are here to make a demand from the Governor of Rivers State as the Chief Security Officer of the state. We are here to make a demand because our mothers are being killed. We are here to make a demand because our daughters are being killed. We are here to make a demand because our sisters are being killed,” said Ibim Semenitari, former acting managing director of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC).
“We know that he will be able to do something about it and we have come with a petition to Government House, Rivers State. We are burdened because people are dying in our state without cause,” she said.
Receiving the petition, Danagogo apologised to women in the state over the statement credited to the authorities of the Nigeria Police.
Danagogo, who said the state government was on top of the matter, advised residents of the state, especially young ones, to be security-conscious.
“All of us must understand that the Nigeria of today is not like Nigeria of yesterday where some of us grew in. We have to be very careful. That time you can stay anywhere till anytime and nothing happened,” he said.
During the protest march by women groups, the police announced that a man had just be arrested while allegedly setting up deathly appointment in a hotel (name withheld). Sources said a woman raised alarm in a hotel room and the man was captured.
The police said it has also sealed off two hotels where two women were found dead in same fashion: strangulation with white handkerchiefs plus evidence of drugging. The ladies are said to be waitresses who allegedly went to the rooms to answer calls. One particular lady was said to be an orphan working as a receptionist to put food on the table for her siblings.
How sex killers trap PH ladies
Latest clues indicated that victims are usually drugged, tied up and sexually abused. Indications have shown that the killer chooses a target, often a female entrepreneur. The killer offers N30,000 to a lady for a session in a hotel and then strangles her in a particular and consistent fashion after severally assaulting her sexually.
The other method is to take a lady on a lift in a posh car, drug her in the car, and take her to a hotel. Yet another method is to use another lady as bait and trap the target in a keke and force her to a hotel and kill her. A would-be victim managed to escape with bruises all over her legs after the bait (lady) told her, “Today, you are going to die.”
A lady was fished out in a salty water near the NLNG fence when the Toyota Camry taking on Peter Odili Road on Monday evening smashed into the river. The driver was said to have swum away but the lady died. The family is insisting on investigations and autopsy. Some believe the lady may have forced the accident in a struggle.
The most striking incident is that of an Owerri-based student that has been declared wanted when CCTV footage revealed his identity. A manhunt is said to be on.
The latest incident has led to an arrest of a man who invited a lady for sex at N30,000. The lady went to the police who arranged everything and the man was caught. The police said on Wednesday that the man is making ‘sense’ in his statements.
Rivers State Police Command says it has arrested another suspected serial killer in Port Harcourt. Police Commissioner Mustapha Dandaura said on Wednesday at a press briefing that the arrest was made following a complaint made by a young lady at the Elekahia police station informing the police of a man who called her on phone on Monday night and offered to pay her the sum of N30,000 to have sex with her.
Dandaura said on getting the complaint the DPO of the Elekahia police station invited the lady and asked her to call the suspect to meet with her at a particular spot where the suspect was arrested. He said the suspect is making some confessional statements and undergoing interrogations.
“So far so good, he is making a very good revelation on what has happened. Why we have not paraded him is that he is still under interrogation. It is after we have gotten what we want that we are going to parade him,” he said.
The state police boss who also revealed that another suspect has been trailed and arrested in Kaduna reiterated the need for hotel owners to install CCTVs in their hotels. He advised them on taking proper documentation of guests by requesting from them either national identity card, driver’s licence, or international passport, noting that such guests must submit their telephone numbers which must be verified by the receptionist.
Experts warn of change of tactics
Some security experts have warned that if much attention is paid in hotels, the killers would change style and modus operandi. They have warned the public to be extra-vigilant because ritualists do not easily give up. They have also advised the security agencies to be on the alert for the next move which the killers must make.
IGNATIUS CHUKWU & GLADYS NWEKE
