A Chief Magistrate in Rivers State has remanded Damian Okoligwe – a 400 level Petrochemical Engineering student of the University of Port Harcourt – in prison, for the alleged murder of his girlfriend, Justina Otuene, a 300-level student of Biochemistry at the same university.
Okoligwe was accused of killing Justina on October 25 at his residence for ritual purposes, and was arrested after his neighbours raised the alarm over his attempt to dispose of the body.
He was earlier paraded at the Rivers State Police Command headquarters in Port Harcourt, where he admitted that his girlfriend died in his house but denied killing her.
When he was arraigned at the court on Monday, the prosecuting counsel appealed to the Chief Magistrate Nnenda Obiageri-Onugbum to remand the accused based on the gravity of the offence.
After listening to the submissions of the prosecution and the defence counsel, Obiageri-Onugbum ruled that the Okoligwe be remanded in the Port Harcourt Correctional Centre and ordered that the case file be transferred to the Directorate of Public Prosecution (DPP) for legal advice.
Obiageri-Onugbum, thereafter, adjourned the case to December 15 pending the DPP report.