Azuazu, a father of one living at Omouku area of Port Harcourt, Rivers State, said he was employed to guard the land in question, which belonged to the Alakahia community close to the University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital.
He said, “The man who employed us never paid us. He would rather take us to a bar and buy us drinks and then give us small money, like N3,000. It was too small for me. When my wife became pregnant and I needed money to prepare for our coming child, he refused to assist me.
“I saw my chance to make money when Ikenna came to our site on May 25. My colleague, Joshua, and I decided to kidnap him. We believed he was from a rich family and thought that was why he normally brought people to buy land at the site.
“When we sighted him, we threatened to shoot him with our double-barrelled gun. We kidnapped and took him deep into the forest. While we kept him there, we called his relatives with his phone and demanded a N5m ransom.
“Ikenna’s brother told us that he did not have up to that amount. We reduced the ransom to N2m and threatened to kill him if they did not pay. While we were waiting on the family to pay us the ransom, Ikenna spent 14 days in our custody.
“On the 15th day, I left him in Joshua’s custody to go and buy some food. When I returned I found him lying motionless on the ground. I asked Joshua what happened and he told me that when I was away, Ikenna attempted to escape and he almost overpowered him before he found a stick and hit him in the head.”
Azuazu said he checked Ikenna’s pulse and realised that he was still breathing but faintly.
According to him, there was nothing he could do to help the young man and had to leave him on the ground till he breathed his last.
He said after few hours, he went to check Ikenna’s pulse again and noticed that he had died.
The suspect said, “I called his brother, who had been communicating with us about the ransom and he said he could only afford N120,000. I asked him to take it to the Teaching Hospital Road and drop it at a certain spot.
“He did as I instructed and I went there to take the money. We took part of the money to the Rumuola Market and bought a bedsheet, which we took to the forest to wrap Ikenna’s body. We stuffed it in the boot of his car and took it to a farm in Umunkwa Igbodo in Etche, Rivers State, where we dumped it.
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