Cynthia Osokogu, who was murdered in the FESTAC area of Lagos by two Facebook friends on July 22, was buried in her home town, Boji Boji Owa in Ika North-East Local Government Area of Delta State on Friday.
Friends and relatives of the deceased, who witnessed the burial, wept bitterly as the coffin was lowered into the grave.
The burial should have taken place on Sept. 7, but was postponed on the advice of the police, who had yet to conclude autopsy on the corpse. Meanwhile, a Yaba Magistrate’s Court on Friday nullified the bail granted two suspects arrested in connection with the murder of Osokogu.
This is just as the police substituted the criminal charges against all the seven suspects arrested in connection with the incident.
Five of the suspects, Okwumo Nwabufo, Olisaeloka Ezike, Orji Osita (pharmacist), Chukwunonso Maduakor (pharmacist), and Gideon Okechukwu, had been charged with eight offences bordering on murder, rape, robbery and administering an obnoxious substance to the deceased and had been remanded in Ikoyi Prison without the option of bail pending the advice of the Director of Public Prosecutions.
The two other suspects, Nonso Ezike, Olisaeloka’s younger brother, and Chinonso Ezeaka had been charged with receiving and selling Cynthia’s BlackBerry phone, but were granted bail in the sum of N500,000 with two sureties in like sum by another magistrate, Mr. P.A. Adekomaya, on Sept. 26, 2012.
The police, however, withdrew the earlier charges filed against all the accused persons and filed three fresh ones, bringing the total number of charges to 11.
The police also consolidated the charges, which implies that Nonso and Ezeaka would be charged with a capital offence like the other accused persons, thereby nullifying their bail.
Counsel to Ezeaka, Mr. J.C. Ngobili, described the act as unjust and told the court that charges 10 and 11 were a repetition of the old ones.
It was noted that only the ninth charge, fraudulently inviting Cynthia to Lagos, was the only new charge.
“Counts number 10 and 11 are the same as that in the old charge sheet, no missing words, and the same sentence,” he said.
Ngobili added that Ezeaka had just met his stringent bail conditions only for the police to appear with fresh charges.
Police prosecutor, Chukwu Agwu, however, maintained that the connection between the receivers of the property and the alleged murderers was too thin.
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