By Unini Chioma 

Samuel Udo, the police officer investigating the killing of Iniubong Umoren testified on Tuesday in the ongoing trial of the suspected killer, Uduak Akpan, in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State.

Mr Akpan is accused of raping the victim, a fresh graduate of the University of Uyo, before killing her in April in Uyo after luring her with a fake job offer.

Mr Udo, an inspector of police, told the State High Court that Mr Akpan had confessed that he (Akpan) hit late Miss Umoren with a stabilizer before she fell down and died.

The officer tendered a compact disk containing a video recording the police did during the exhumation of Miss Umoren’s body where it was buried in a shallow grave allegedly by Mr Akpan.

The video was aired in court on Thursday.

The police inspector said it was Mr Akpan who led the police to the grave and was present during the exhumation.

“I recovered the stabilizer that he confessed he used. When we exhumed the remains of the deceased, there was an open wound on the forehead of the deceased and a mark of injury on the lower abdomen,” he said.

He said the case was first reported as an abduction but following the arrest of the suspect and his confessional statement, the police established a murder case.

A female witness, whose identify was shielded by the court, testified that Mr Akpan allegedly drugged and raped her on December 5, 2020.

The witness, who said she was seeking a job, narrated how Mr Akpan lured her to his house under the guise of a job interview.

She told the court that on the day of the incident, she arrived at Mr Akpan’s house in Uruan Local Government Area by 5 p.m. and left around 1 a.m.

“He said that in the farm, they deal on drugs and that the government knows about it, and before he employs anybody, he has to test the drugs on the person. I pleaded with him but he said that if the drug was too much on me, that there is a tonic water that he will give me to drink to flush the drug out of my system.

“I was really begging him and he said if I wanted to go, I have to do as he said. He said I should stand up immediately and take the drugs.

“He brought out three wraps of marijuana from his pocket. He lit two. He gave me one and showed me how to inhale it, while he was smoking one. I smoked the first one, nothing happened to me.

“He lit the second one and was taking me round the compound and asking me if I could still recognise what was in front of me. I said yes.

“He gave me the second one, and still nothing happened to me. He told me that I needed to help him, that he was high and needed to release. I started crying and begged him. But after, I removed my trouser and he raped me,” she said.

She said Mr Akpan later forced her to undress and photographed her nakedness.

“I was begging him to let me go. He now said I should undress totally. He took out his phone and snapped pictures of me naked. After that, he said I should wait, that he would call a bike to come and pick me up,” she added.

She said she did not tell anyone about the incident because Mr Akpan threatened to kill her if she did.

Another witness, Innocent Linus, a police inspector, testified on Wednesday.

The case was adjourned to January 14, 2022.