Pastor Chidebere Okoroafor of Altar of Solution Church who killed three of his church members in Port Harcourt, Rivers State has confessed…

Pastor Chidebere Okoroafor answering questions from journalists

“I want the family of Uluoma and Mr. Joseph (father of the nine-month-old baby, Christabel) to forgive me. I want the police to help me to apologise to the families of those I killed. It was not intentional,”

Deputy State Commissioner of Police in charge of administration, Cyril Okoro disclosed that…. “The case started unfolding on December 11, 2017. At about 11am, the whereabouts of Concilia Ezeawa, Christabel Joseph and Uluoma Onweagba (all female) became unknown to their families”

“This resulted in the lodging of a formal complaint on their disappearance at the Afam Divisional Headquarters. After a preliminary investigation by the police, coupled with a diligent search by members of the community, the decomposing body of Uluoma Onweagba and Christabel Joseph (baby) were discovered in a bush along the Afam-Igberu Road on December 13, 2017.”

“Their corpses were immediately evacuated and deposited at the mortuary pending further investigation. On December 18, 2017, the decomposing corpse of the real mother of the baby, Concilia Ezeawa, was recovered in an uncompleted building in Izuoma community in Oyigbo Local Government Area. The corpse, which was at an advanced stage of decomposition, was evacuated and deposited at the mortuary pending further police investigation.”

“The pastor, who was said to have been involved in amorous relationship with one of the deceased, Onweagba, was invited and interrogated about the murders of the victims.”

“He was subsequently detained, as his explanations were not convincing, particularly compared to the information at the disposal of investigators that the deceased persons had, on December 11, 2017, informed neighbours that they were going to see the pastor over a pregnancy issue involving Onweagba.”

“The pastor later confessed to the crime after he was confronted with overwhelming evidence linking him to the murders of the deceased persons.”

“The pastor took advantage of the trust the two members of his church had in him to lure them to an uncompleted building and inside the bush respectively, before killing them.”

The pastor first lured Ezeawa to an uncompleted building, telling the other person (pregnant Onweagba) to wait some distance away. He added that unknown to the pregnant lady, the pastor had killed her neighbour.”

“After strangling Ezeawa in the uncompleted building, he (pastor) joined Onweagba along Afam Road, where they both took a commercial tricycle to Afam Roundabout. They again took a commercial motorcycle to an isolated farm on Igberu Road where he took her through a track road and gruesomely murdered her in the bush, with the baby strapped to her back. She (pregnant Onweagba) was suffocated with the wrapper she used in strapping the baby to her back. The baby was also found dead.”

“The murders were premeditated, callous and devoid of sympathy,” Okoro said, adding that the pastor will soon be charged to court.