PUNCH
The Rivers State Police Command has arrested four people, including a native doctor and a teenage girl, for their alleged role in the killing of two siblings.
The children were drugged and killed at the Ogbodo Pipeline area of Rukpokwu in Obio-Akpor Local Government Area.
One of the suspects, 27-year-old Aniekan Uko, allegedly lured the children to a location, drugged them, and then killed them. He also drained their blood.
A lawyer helping with the police investigation, Linda Ojims, said the children were coming back from church when Uko stopped them and took them to an uncompleted building.
Ojims said the suspect may have hypnotized the children, making them follow him willingly.
She explained that after luring them, he gave them a drink that made them fall asleep, then raped and murdered them.
Ojims said, “The children were coming back from church. So along the line, the suspect, I don’t know whether he hypnotised or lured them, took them to an uncompleted building. He then induced the drink he gave to them. The children slept, he raped and murdered them.”
The police spokesperson, Grace Iringe-Koko, confirmed the arrest in a statement on Wednesday.
Iringe-Koko said officers from the Anti-Kidnapping Unit acted quickly and arrested the main suspect and his accomplices on March 23, 2025. She described the case as “horrific.”
According to the police boss, Uko confessed to the crime and said he got involved in ritual killings after visiting a native doctor.
He said he had seen the native doctor perform similar rituals for others in exchange for wealth and was told to provide fresh human remains and blood for ritual purposes.