The police in Delta State, south-south Nigeria, have said a hotel manager and two others allegedly stabbed a lodger to death in the state.
The victim has been identified as Sunday Ogofotha.
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The police spokesperson in the state, Bright Edafe, disclosed this via a video clip uploaded on his Facebook page on Friday.
Mr Edafe, a superintendent of police, said the incident happened on 21 March in Owhelogbo, a village in Isoko Community, Isoko North Local Government Area of the state.
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How it happened
The police said Mr Ogofotha had lodged in Century Hotel in the community when two unidentified men visited the hotel.
He said the two men approached the manager, Godwin, and requested permission to see Mr Ogofotha in his room.
Mr Edafe said the men promised to give the manager N5 million if he allowed them to access Mr Ogofotha’s room.
Perhaps, moved by the N5 million promised, Godwin allegedly allowed them access into the room without identifying who they were and the business they had with the lodger, the police said.
Mr Edafe said Godwin, after a while, saw only one of the men and also observed that Mr Ogofotha’s room had been locked with a padlock from the outside.
He said the manager subsequently forced the door open and observed that Mr Ogofotha was dead, but he did nothing.
Meanwhile, according to the police spokesperson, the deceased had phoned his wife and informed her that he lodged at the hotel, which prompted her to contact other family members when she could not longer reach him via phone.
“When relatives went to the hotel (in search of the man), the manager denied knowledge of the guy’s (whereabouts) claiming the guy had already checked out,” he said.
“It was after he was arrested that he confessed.”
Mr Edafe said apart from Godwin, three others, including the two men, had been arrested.
Suspect speaks
The manager, Godwin, narrated in the clip that the two men requested to “collect something” from Mr Ogofotha at the hotel room.
“They told me if they collect the thing from the man, they were going to give me N5 million,” he said, without his face being shown in the clip.
Godwin said when he opened the room after about an hour and found out the lodger had died, he fled due to fear.
How I was arrested
Godwin narrated that after he fled, his uncle, who owns the hotel, reported the incident to vigilante operatives in the community.
“I went to a woman’s house to pass the night. Early in the morning, I came out to find out how the issue was, that was when vigilante (operatives) and community boys held me,” he said.
The manager told the police spokesperson that the two arrested men murdered the victim in the hotel room.
Not the first time
During interrogations, Godwin confessed that he first met the two other suspects in December.
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The manager said the two men had brought a female PoS operator into the hotel during the time and gifted him N300,000.
He admitted that since then he has not seen the woman.
Hotel razed
Mr Edafe said some angry people burnt down the hotel because of the development.
The police spokesperson did not, however, mention the people who razed the hotel and when it happened.
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