Delta State-based businessman, Kingsley Agbaire, who allegedly killed his business partner, broke down as the deceased’s body was being exhumed on Wednesday and asked the victim’s ghost for forgiveness.
51-year-old Lawrence Okoh, a Port Harcourt, Rivers State-based auto parts dealer, identified as Okoh was killed and dumped his corpse in a shallow grave by his business partner in Warri.
Agbaire said “Lawrence, forgive me o. It was the devil that pushed me into killing you.”
He also begged the police to allow him to beg his victim’s skeleton, but this request was rejected for fear that he might escape.
Agbaire said that his business relationship with Okoh started few years ago when he was working in Lagos as an auto parts dealer.
He said, “He used to bring parts to me which I supplied to companies. We have done business together before that amounted to N4m.”
Reported that, relationship continued normal, until August 2, when Okoh took some auto parts to Lawrence in Warri.
Thereafter, on the night of August 3, after making the delivery which was worth about N1.6m, Agbaire and an accomplice allegedly paid a visit to the deceased to where he stayed anytime is around in Warri.
While in the house, Agbaire said they smashed a bottle on Okoh’s head and he died without putting up much fight nor raise any alarm because he was already weak.
After the murder, Agbaire and his accomplice reportedly dragged the body of the deceased to an uncompleted building beside the house and buried him in a shallow grave.
Agbaire confessed that nobody saw them when they went into the house; “but was not sure, because some children were playing in the compound might have seen them.
“The children know me. I usually bought them biscuits anytime I came here,” he said.
The security agents did not take too long to unearth the body after Agbaire pointed out where they buried the body. The remains were packed in a casket for further investigation.
Agbaire further confessed that Okoh did him no harm, “it was the devil that pushed me into killing you.”
It is revealed when Okoh’s wife, Nneka, reported her missing husband. She is making many attempts to reach him on the phone through several called but she couldn’t and she repeatedly called her husband’s line but was said to be switched off.
On the processed Okoh’s wife and other members of the family contacted Agbaire too, he disconnected the calls.
Later Agbaire also confessed that he broke the deceased’s SIM cards at a point.
The police said they were contacted because of suspicion that something might have happened to the deceased.
It was learnt that when Agbaire was finally tracked down and arrested by the police, he first said that the last time he saw Okoh was when he left his house in annoyance due to disagreement over the quality of the parts he supplied.
The police said after more than two weeks of investigation and failure of Agbaire to tell them the whereabouts of the deceased, he finally confessed to the police how they killed him.
He also claimed that his accomplice identified as Kennedy was the one who did the actual killing and had fled to Ghana.
The spokesperson for the Delta State Police Command, Celestina Kalu, who confirmed the story, said the police are still on the trail of the fleeing accomplice and that investigation was still ongoing on the case.
She said Agbaire would be charged to court soon.
