Cynthia: 7 Suspects Face Fresh Charges

The police today substituted the charges brought against seven suspects alleged to have killed Miss Cynthia Osokogu, daughter of retired General Frank Osokogu.

In an application brought before Mr. O.S. Aka-Bashorun presiding at a Yaba Magistrate’s court this morning, Mr. Chukwu Agwu sought to replace former charge number TA/22/2012 with charge number Ta/52/2012.

Aka-Bashorun granted the request of the prosecution and the new 11- count charge number TA/52A/2012 was filed before the court.

The suspects brought to court this morning were: Okwumo Echezona Nwabufo, 32, Ezike Olisaeloka, 23, Orji Osita, 32, Maduakor Chukwunonso, 25, Eziaka Chinonso, Gideon Okechukwu and Ezike Ifechukwu.

The presiding magistrate ordered that the seven suspects be remanded in prison custody pending the advice from the Director of Public Prosecution, DPP.

The matter was adjourned till 5 November. Five of the suspects were alleged to have murdered Cynthia in July this year at a hotel in Festac, Lagos, southwest Nigeria. The other two suspects are pharmacists who sold the drug that was put in Cynthia’s drink.

Meanwhile, it was expected that Cynthia’s corpse will be handed over to her family today for burial. But as at press time, the management of Lagos State General Hospital was yet to release her corpse.

Chief Magistrate O.S. Aka-Bashorun of a Yaba Magistrate’s court on Wednesday ordered warders of Nigeria Prison to produce in court the suspected killers of Cynthia Osokogu before him on Friday.

This followed the absence of the suspects and the oral application made in court by the prosecution counsel. Four of the the defendants were remanded in prison custody when they were arraigned before the court on Monday, 27 August.

According to the prosecution, the charge against the seven suspects will be harmonised. The suspects were charged at various dates as the police continued the investigation on the murder.

On Monday 27 August, four suspects were arraigned before Magistrate Aka Bashorun of Yaba Magistrate’s court in connection with the murder of Cynthia.

The suspects are Okwumo Echezona Nwabufor, 33, Ezike Ilechukwu Olisaeloka, 23, Orji Osita, 32, and Maduakor Chukwunonso, 25.

They were slammed with  an eight-count charge of murder, armed robbery, administering the late Cynthia with obnoxious substance among  others.

According to the charge, the suspects also had unlawful sexual intercourse with the victim without her consent.

Their plea was not taken. The court ordered that they should be remanded in prison custody and their file duplicated for DPP’s advice. The matter was adjourned till 3 October, 2012.

Cynthia Osokogu, the only daughter of retired Major Frank Osokogu, was a post graduate student and boutique owner based in Nassarawa State.

She met the undergraduates, who later murdered her, through social networking site Facebook.

The principal suspects, Ezike Ilechukwu Olisaeloka, 23, and Okwumo Echezona Nwabufo, 33, allegedly confessed to the police that they lured her to Lagos from her base in Nassarawa State under the pretext that they are also into clothing business.

After receiving her at the Murtala Muhammed airport in Lagos, they took her to Cosmilla Hotel in Festac Town.

Eloka said they later put a tablet in her Ribena drink  and slept with her for about 12 hours.

After discovering that  Cynthia did not have a lot of money on her as they earlier presumed, they raped her for 12 hours and later strangled her.

Following the arrest and subsequent parade of  Olisaeloka and his cousin, Nwabufo, over the murder of Cynthia, three more ladies came forward, saying they were once victims of the alleged murderers.

The three women reportedly went to Festac Police Command to write a statement about how they were drugged, raped and robbed by the suspects now facing trial.

—Cyriacus Izuekwe