The body of a 54-year-old woman, Mrs Philomena Ogadi, has been discovered buried in a shallow grave on a farmland near the Benin-Agbor-Onitsha Expressway in Agbor, Ika South Local Government Area of Delta State.
The corpse, PUNCH Metro gathered, was exhumed by the police on Saturday, four days after her burial by her abductors despite collecting ransom of over N650,000 from her family.
The victim, who hailed from the Otolokpo community in the Ika North-East Local Government Area of the state, was said to have been abducted last week by a nine-man gang of kidnappers.
The Commissioner of Police in the state, Mr Mohammed Ali, said on Monday that the woman was reported missing by her son, which made the command to commence investigation.
He said, “One of the abductors, who is now in police custody, led the state Deputy Commissioner of Police, Operations, Faleye Olayele, and other police officers to the scene, where the body of the victim was exhumed and taken to the mortuary.
“Her body was exhumed and she had gunshot injuries on her head and was blindfolded despite ransom being paid to her abductors.
“Having killed the woman and buried her in a shallow grave, the abductors did not stop there, they went on calling the children and collecting ransom. So far, they have collected N650,000 from her children after killing the woman.
“They made the children to believe that their mother was still alive. They did a video recording of their mother and played it to the children.
“One of the suspects was arrested and confessed to the crime, and said that was his first attempt at kidnapping and robbery.
“The eldest son of the victim said one of the suspects lives in the same apartment with his mother before she was kidnapped and murdered.”
Ali gave an assurance that the police would unravel the circumstances behind the murder of the victim and bring all the culprits to justice.
