How human heads were concealed in Onitsha hotel room – Suspect

LAST week’s demolition of a three –storey building housing Upper Class Hotel, located at No. 8 Old Market Road, Onitsha, was the third to be supervised by Governor Peter Obi of Anambra State in the last one year. The governor, on two previous occasions, led security operatives to demolish the houses of two suspected notorious kidnappers at Oraifite in Ekwusigo local government area and Uli in Ihiala local government area.
During the previous occasions, Obi made it clear that any property belonging to confirmed criminals in the state would be demolished to serve as deterrent to others who engage in criminal activities. After the two demolitions last year, there was a noticeable drop in crime rate in the state, especially kidnapping and armed robbery. That is why the alleged discovery of fresh human heads in the Onitsha hotel last week jolted many people, including security operatives.
On that Wednesday, policemen from the Onitsha Area Command, allegedly acting on a tip off, swopped on the hotel and made what was said to be a startling discovery in one of the rooms. There, three human heads, said to have been wrapped in a cellophane bag, were allegedly kept beside the bed. In the same room were reportedly found two AK47 rifles, 40 rounds of live ammunition, some mobile telephones and two army caps.

Gov Obi supervising the demolition…

The visit to the hotel by the police was allegedly carefully planned as police intelligence unit from the Inspector General’s, IGs, office, was said to have, for about one month , been gathering information on alleged criminal activities in the hotel.
Though the proprietor of the hotel, Chief Bonaventure Mokwe, was often not working in the hotel as he has other businesses in parts of Onitsha, the police ensured that he was in the hotel on that day. At the time the police demanded to search the rooms, most of the workers were allegedly present and 11 of them, six females and five males, including the owner of the hotel, Mokwe, arrested. The hotel proprietor is currently being detained at the headquarters of the Special Anti- Robbery Squad, SARS, Awkuzu in Oyi council area.
An Infinity jeep with registration number, DA 203 FST, belonging to the hotel proprietor, was impounded by the police. Mokwe is the son of a wealthy businessman from Umuchu in Aguata local government area of Anambra State who, after his education and following the death of his father; started managing his late father’s businesses.
One of the suspects, who claimed to be a cleaner in the hotel, said she invited her daughter that fateful day to help her in the job as she was not feeling well only to be rounded up by security men. She also said that she had been telling the hotel management to give her the keys to the hotel room where the human heads were allegedly found to clean it because of the stench, said to be oozing from there, but to no avail.
She said: “I don’t know anything concerning this incident; I am just a cleaner in the hotel. My daughter just returned from school on holiday and I begged her to assist me clean the hotel before we were arrested. Even before the arrest, I noticed that one of the rooms was permanently locked, even without any guest, I have been telling the manager to give me the keys to the room so that I could clean it but he refused and there was odour oozing out from the room before our arrest.”
Demolition
Barely 48 hours after the discovery of the human heads in the hotel and arrests that followed, Governor Obi led security operatives and other government officials to the hotel and ordered the immediate pulling down. Addressing a large number of Onitsha residents who made the vicinity of the hotel a tourist center soon after the discovery, Obi insisted that he would not allow criminals to return the state to the ugly days of the past when Anambra was associated with evil deeds.
The governor announced that the state government had confiscated all assets belonging to the owner of the hotel, explaining that the action was in line with the policy of his administration to sustain the fight against crime and criminality.
He said: “I will not relent in my resolve to flush out hoodlums from all parts of the state and I will continue to knock down property belonging to criminals. I am aware some people would rather want us to convert those property for use for public purposes, but I tell you, acquiring those property and knocking them down is psychologically more beneficial because the weight of the punishment is proportional to the fear it engenders in people to avoid crime.”
‘Action hasty’
Some lawyers in Anambra State are, however, questioning the hurry in pulling down the hotel building when, according to them, investigations were not concluded. Dr. M.N.Umenweke, who claimed to be a solicitor to the proprietor of the hotel, said Governor Obi might have been misinformed to take the action he took, unlike his usual way of listening to all sides and getting all facts as he did in previous cases.