Confession of a man who killed Sugarmummy: My family is well known for Crime

“They said that my father used to kill fowl and drink its blood. They told me that he was so notorious in the village that people stigmatized us. I was told that my elder brother was killed mistakenly because he found himself in the company of armed robbers. My second brother was killed over a land issue although the police claimed that he was into kidnapping”, says alleged killer of Lagos business woman, Njideka.

Weeks after a Lagos-based busi¬ness woman, Njideka Lizzy Nzewe was murdered in her apartment at Green estate, Amu¬wo-Odofin area of Lagos, her supposed boy¬friend and only suspect, Kelechi Mokewu has given a chilling account of the notoriety of his family.

The mother of four, aged 39, who was well cele¬brated for her exploits in marketing Edmark prod¬ucts in Nigeria was said to have been strangled by her younger lover, 33-year-old Kelechi on July 20. He later absconded to Cote d’ Ivoire after spend¬ing days in Ghana with her valuables including a Range Rover SUV he stole from her house.

The deceased’s family, however, insists that their sister and Kelechi were only business part¬ners and not lovers as widely reported. This and other puzzles are what the police have been work¬ing to unravel in a bid to ensure the dastardly act is not ranked among the many unresolved murder cases in Nigeria. Since Kelechi was repatriated to Nigeria from Cote d’ivoire where he was eventu¬ally arrested, he has been telling the police more than one reason he killed Njideka.

Manhunt 

Shortly after the incident, the Nzewe family alerted the police at Area E command, Festac. From there, detectives led by Dan Okoro, an As¬sistant Commissioner of Police, launched a man¬hunt for the suspect. Soon after, it was discovered that Kelechi fled from South Africa to Nigeria af¬ter allegedly murdering his neighbour over a failed business deal. The Range Rover SUV stolen from Njideka helped in providing information about the movement of the suspect because of the tracking device fitted into it. Kelechi was initially tracked to a church known as the Miracle Revival Church International, Accra, Ghana, where members of the church vividly remembered that he came to the church on Sunday, July 20, 2014 to celebrate God’s mercy upon his life.

“The elders of the church also gave us a state¬ment. They told us those weeks before he trav¬elled down to Lagos, he came for a special prayer. Everyone was excited when he returned with a Range Rover. In fact, he was used as an example to narrate how God can bless a believer. They also confirmed that he did not spend up to one hour in the church. His excuse was that he just stepped into the country and wanted the pastor to bless his car”, a member of the police team cracking the case told Saturday Sun.

His next port of call was the famous Kanthan¬manto market, where second hand clothes are mostly sold in Ghana. “We tracked down some of his friends who also confirmed that he was at the market to celebrate his success. He told them that it was his latest lover that bought him a car because he got her pregnant. He bought drinks for them and hurriedly left the market with the excuse that he had a business meeting,” the source added.

He left his phones on and through that he was able to get tip-offs from his family members and friends on the manhunt for him by the police. “We discovered that family and friends were sending messages to him, threatening that the police was on their way to pick him up in Ghana. Alarmed, he decided to relocate to Abidjan with the same car that had a tracking device. With the aid of Inter¬pol, he was picked up at Abidjan where they later handed him over to a team of police detectives from Nigeria.” The suspect was said to have have moved freely across the borders without scrutiny because he was “generous to the security agents at the border posts.”

How it all started

Although Njedika’s family insists that the duo’s business relationship dates back to February 2014, Kelechi claims that they met in Ghana in 2011. “We met at an event in Ghana and I accosted her when I realised that she is not just an Igbo woman but also from Anambra. In 2014, when I returned home to see my mother, I saw her in Nnewi wait¬ing for a motorcycle and she was looking much younger and pretty. I introduced myself and we exchanged phone numbers. One thing led to an¬other and we became friends. She realised that I would help her with importing most of the goods she had in her shop. It was then that she opened up to me about her estranged marriage and her kids,” Kelechi narrated during an interaction with Saturday Sun.

For months the relationship blossomed before it eventually turned sour. “She trusted me to the ex¬tent that anytime she comes to Ghana; she would stay in my house and vice versa. I fell in love with her and was actually serious when I proposed marriage to her,” he said.

Insisting that he mistakenly killed her in a fit of rage, Kelechi claimed that it was a phone call that she received that night that got him annoyed. I was boiling in anger when her phone rang; she refused to pick the call. I picked the call, and saw the caller’s name as Ifeanyi. I was mad when the caller who thought she was the one who picked the phone asked to know if she got home safely and that he enjoyed the moments they shared. I was mad and couldn’t control myself again. I broke the phone and she attacked me. She grabbed my manhood while I struggled to free myself from her grip. I had no choice but to strangle her with her cloth; it was when she released my manhood that I knew that she had slumped. I tried to wake her up but realised that it was late,” Kelechi further narrated.

She trusted him- Security man

According to John Tungwin, the security man, who had lived with Njideka for four years, he never suspected foul play be¬cause Kelechi was so calm when he came to meet him. “This was the third time that he visited the house and my madam had so much respect for him. A day before the incident, I went to the new house with her and later came back in the night. She dropped me at the gate and went out, only to return at about 12am on Saturday. She told us to start packing our bags that we will finally move over to the new house.

 “My madam trusted him and he was so nice to the children. Most especially, when he came to me that night, there was no sign of panic, he was his usual self. I did not even notice that he was observing and getting the ATM pin, “John explained.