By Izunna Okafor, Awka
The Anambra State Police Command says it has arrested a 24-year-old female suspect, identified as Somtochukwu Nwafor, in connection with the gruesome killing and selling of body parts of a pregnant nurse whose mutilated body was recently discovered dumped inside a soakaway pit in Ogbunike, Oyi Local Government Area of the state.
Confirming this in a press statement issued on Wednesday, the Police Public Relations Officer, SP Tochukwu Ikenga, revealed that the arrest was made on July 25, 2025, with the help of vigilant residents of Umueri Village in Ogbunike community. He said the suspect, who is currently in custody, confessed during interrogation that she was the girlfriend of the prime suspect, one Chiemerie Obika Elobisi, a native of the same community who is still on the run.
According to the Police Spokesman, Somtochukwu told investigators that she was invited by Chiemerie to clean up the blood stains left after the nurse was murdered. She further confessed that the deceased’s body parts were harvested and sold to different native doctors in the area who were said to have requested them for ritual purposes. The victim, according to the preliminary findings, was lured to the suspect’s house in the middle of the night under the pretense of providing medical assistance to his sick mother, before she met her tragic end.
Acting on intelligence gathered from the female suspect, operatives of the State Criminal Investigation Department (SCID) in the early hours of July 29, 2025, stormed a shrine operated by one Nwafor Chibunna Ofornwatadile, a native doctor from Itima Amawa Village, also in Ogbunike. During the raid, the police recovered suspected human body parts wrapped in black nylon and concealed inside the shrine.
According to the PPRO, the Anambra State Police Command has since launched a full-scale manhunt for the fleeing Chiemerie, as well as other accomplices, including those believed to have received and trafficked the victim’s body parts. The Command also disclosed that more arrests are imminent as investigations deepen into what appears to be a syndicate of ritual killers operating within the area.
Condemning the act, the State Commissioner of Police, CP Ikioye Orutugu fwc MNIPS PhD, described the crime as “inhumane, criminal, and an affront to public morality and the sanctity of life.”
He urged members of the public with relevant information that could aid the investigation or lead to the apprehension of the remaining suspects to come forward with such, assuring that such information will be treated with strict confidentiality and the identities of informants protected.
Meanwhile, residents of Ogbunike and the surrounding communities remain in shock over the horrifying development, as calls for tighter security and stricter monitoring of occultic and ritual activities grow louder.
The Anambra State Police Command further reassured the public that justice will be served, as investigations continue to unravel the full extent of the crime and bring all involved to book.
