The family of Onyinye Eze, an employee of Globacom Nigeria Limited, allegedly murdered by her Australia returnee ‘husband’, Mr. Stephen Akpata, have described the suspect as a liar and swindler.
On August 16, 2017, Akpata, according to police records, an indigene of
Delta State and popularly called Bishop because he reportedly
administered a church, allegedly murdered his 33-year-old ‘wife.’
Police said the suspect, who had reportedly confessed to the crime, also
confessed to serving various jail terms in Australia and was also
involved as a witness or suspect in a certain murder case.
The police suspected that Akpata jumped bail and returned to Nigeria.
The suspect, said to have spent over 27 years in Australia, allegedly
strangled his new wife with the cords of a pressing iron before stabbing
her to death with a knife.
Akpata, the prime suspect in the murder, was later arrested by the
police in Badagry, Lagos State, about two weeks after the discovery.
The elder brother and guardian of the deceased, Alex Eze, a Master
Warrant Officer of the Nigerian Air Force, described Akpata as a
‘pathological liar, swindler and unrepentant criminal.’
Eze, who described Oyinye as the last child of their parents, claimed
that the information Akpata supplied to the police about himself was
untrue.
The distraught Eze said,
“First, let me correct the impression that Akpata is 40 years old. I
read some reports that the suspect is 40 years old. That is a lie. The
man is in his in early 60s.
“The suspect’s daughter is between 29 and
30 years. He (Akpata) told me he stayed overseas for over 37 years.
That is what he told me when he came to my house. The man is not only a
liar, he is a deceiver and has a sugar-coated mouth.“I want to tell you
that the man has not given the police his actual details.”
… ‘he didn’t show up for the traditional wedding’
Reports claimed that he was married to my sister, it is not true. They
only met in June 2017. So, how could he marry our sister in June? What
has he done concerning the marriage to make him our sister’s husband?We
learnt that they had a registry marriage about a month or two ago.They
did not do any court marriage. I do not know what he wants to achieve
with such lies.
But there are photographs of both of them on the Internet holding a court certificate. What is your response to that?
She was not married to him. The pictures might have been taken in the
house and posted on the Internet to deceive people that they were
married. Even the shorts he wore in one of the pictures he took with my
sister was the shorts we saw inside his house stained with blood, that
is with the police. I am not aware they did any court marriage.
Did the man meet your family?
He only met me as the elder brother and guardian of the lady and asked
me to give him a date. I gave him August 12, 2017 to do the first
introduction to the family. He did not know my mother and my mother did
not know him. How could he claim he was married to my sister?
He claimed he was married to my sister and that he killed her because of
infidelity. Did he pay any bride price to claim that he was married to
my sister? Is that how to marry a person? We are pure Igbo and he did
not do any marriage rites.
Was he married before to any other woman?
He was married. He told me that his son was the manager of his companies
based overseas. He equally claimed he had over 2,000 staff members
working for him over there. That is to tell you the extent of his lies; I
never knew it was a swindler I was dealing with. He told me then that
he wanted the marriage ceremony to be done within three months and that
by the end of September, he would like to take my sister with him to
Australia. He was even asking my sister to resign from her work at Glo.
When he sought your consent to marry your sister, what did you do?
I did not object, knowing full well that my sister was a grown adult. I
told him I would seek Onyinye’s consent and would not like to be a
hindrance to their marriage. I gave him go-ahead with the marriage
preparations. I went to the village and told my kinsmen and they gave
me a date.
Then we agreed on August 12 and September 2, 2017. The
August 12 was for his first visit to the family, what we call ‘knocking
of door’ or introduction. The September 2 was meant for the
wine-carrying ceremony. These events did not hold for no reason. On
August 12, all of us including my sister (Onyinye) were in the village
for the ceremonies, expecting him to come. He then called to say that he
was kidnapped. My sister left the village for Bayelsa immediately.
After my sister left for Bayelsa, Akpata called to tell me that he had
been freed by his abductors and that he never knew Nigeria was such a
bad place. He further said he had called my sister and that he was going
to see her in her house in Yenagoa. He later called me that he was at
home with my sister. I advised him to leave with her and come to Port
Harcourt, so that the next day they would leave for Enugu in order to
see my mother and other family members. He was thanking God for his
release. He also thanked God for making him to see my sister, saying
that my sister was God-sent to him.
To prove to me that he was truly with my sister, he enquired from me if I
wanted to speak with her. I said yes, and I spoke with her. She
confirmed that she was there with him and that they had agreed that they
would go to Port Harcourt the following day as I advised them. I then
advised him to remove his SIM card from his phone so that the kidnappers
would not be able to track him with the line. He said all right.
On August 16, their lines were available in the morning. Two hours
later, I called again, the two lines — his own and my sister’s own were
switched off. The development made me curious. I started calling all my
sister’s friends.
I became worried. Later, I was told that there was one of our town
persons working with my sister in Glo office in Yenagoa. I called the
man (Glo employee) and he told me my sister’s line was off. Akpata
killed my sister that early morning of Wednesday, August 16. After
killing her, he quietly went to the bathroom, cleaned up himself,
changed his clothes and vamoosed from the house.
When I called the Glo employee, he said he had sent somebody to my
sister’s house but that the person met the door open and the burglary
proof was locked from outside but the television was on loudly.
He
said he informed a senior official of the telecom company what they
observed at my sister’s apartment. Both of them went back and it was the
same thing. They reported the development to the police. Meanwhile, we
were communicating all this while and they were giving me situation
report. They later called to inform me that I should give them
permission to force the house open in company with the police. I agreed.
After
sometime, I called them. They asked me whether I was her elder brother.
I said yes. They said, please take heart, your sister is lying in a
pool of blood.
The next day, being August 17, I came to Yenagoa and
saw everything for myself. We even met his (Akpata’s) shorts and a pair
of trainers he wore stained with my sister’s blood with a stick of
cigarette tucked into my sister’s body. That was what happened.
Prior to her death, did your sister receive any kind of threat from Akpata’s family members either in Nigeria or abroad?
Yes. At a point, the daughter working at NDU sent a threat message to my
sister, which she showed me on the day she left for Yenagoa. She had
received the threat message earlier but hid it from us. But on that day
she was leaving for Yenagoa, she told me. She said, “Brother, see the
letter I received from Stephen’s daughter threatening me to stay away
from her father.’’
Why was Akpata’s daughter threatening your sister?
From what I deduced from the threat message, Akpata’s daughter was
against my sister’s relationship with her father. She swore that her
father would not marry my sister and that her mother was still there.
What about Akpata’s wife?
We learnt that the wife was married to another man. The man (Akpata) had
claimed earlier that he got his daughter out of wedlock and that he had
other children overseas. He said he could no longer stay alone,
claiming that the last time he had a woman in his life was in June 2012.
How would you describe your late sister?
She was the last child of my parents. She studied Philosophy at the
University of Nigeria, Nsukka. She was 33 years. I brought her up from
the beginning to the end. She stayed with me in Ikeja, Lagos. She did
her National Youth Service Corps at Nigeria Emergency Management Agency.
What attributes would you miss about Onyinye?
She was a brilliant, intelligent, easy-going, quiet, kind-hearted and jovial person.
We
will miss her greatly. She was the breadwinner of the family. She was
taking care of many people in the family. Before she died, she placed my
mother on N40,000 monthly upkeep. My mother has been crying since she
died, saying her own is finished. Besides, she took the responsibility
of paying tuition fees for many family members. I must say her death has
created a big vacuum that we do not know how to fill it.
Are you satisfied with the police investigation?
We will pursue the matter judicially till justice is served. Her death
cannot be in vain. So far, we are satisfied with what the police are
doing. I also believe that since the matter has come to public
consciousness, the relevant authorities will do the needful to ensure
that justice is served.
