The decomposing bodies of three persons – one female and two males who are reported to be students of the University of Port Harcourt – have been recovered in a forest in Ete-O community in Eleme Local Government Area of Rivers State.
It was gathered that the incident occurred in February but the disappearance was reported in April when the Anti-Cultism Unit began investigation.
Police personnel attached to Anti-Kidnap Unit of Rivers State Police command in an investigation into the kidnap of the victims arrested one of the members of the kidnap gang who took the team the shallow grave where the murdered students were buried.
One of the suspects, who identified himself as Friday Akpan, led officers to the grave where they buried the bodies of the abducted victims identified as Joy Adoki, Nelson Nwafor and Fortune Obinna.
The suspect explained that they killed and buried the three victims after raping the female among them, Joy Adoki.
Spokesman of Rivers State Police command, Mr. Nnamdi Omoni, disclosed that the men of Anti-Kidnap unit led by its commander, CSP Edward Shadare, swung into action after a case of kidnap of the three undergraduates was reported to the unit.
“My friend Bright gathered five of us to carry out the operation. He told us that he was involved in a business with one of boys but he collected the money to buy a car and opened a shop for himself.
“So, we caught him and two other people and took them to the sandfill in Ete-O where we killed and buried them. The girl was killed after two of my friends slept with her. Bright later escaped with the car to Imo state without giving us anything,” Akpan said.
Omoni, who is a Deputy Superintendent of Police, said following a discreet investigation by the unit, the suspects were arrested and one of them led the Police to the place where the undergraduates were killed and buried.
One AK 47 rifle, one pistol, three magazines, seventy-two rounds of live ammunition were among the weapons recovered from the suspects, while the decomposed bodies of the victims were exhumed by the Police and deposited at the mortuary.