Killers of Justice Margaret Igbetar, a retired president of the Customary Court of Appeal in Makurdi, Benue State, have admitted to killing her for allegedly stealing their family’s landed property.
On August 24, 2023, some armed men broke into the retired judge’s Makurdi, Benue State University, School of Medicine apartment on Wantor Kwange Street and murdered her.
A few days later, her relative found her rotting bones.
According to the state commissioner of police, Batholomew Onyeka, who named four suspects in the alleged murder of the retired judge on Tuesday, the deceased’s nephew, Aondohemba Joseph, led a group to the retired judge’s home where they killed her.
The late judge’s driver, a security guard, and one other relative were among the other suspects detained and paraded.
The dead allegedly owned his father’s land, according to Joseph, the accused gang leader who spoke to reporters during the parade.
The late judge was Joseph’s aunt, and when we questioned her about having the documentation for my father’s landed property, she was evasive.
Dzungwenen Ukor, not I, was the one who stabbed her, so I had to make arrangements with other people.
Ukor, who confirmed stabbing the deceased, claimed Joseph urged him to stab her because she would not give up the property documents for his father’s estate, which he claimed were in her hands.
According to Ukor, “He asked me to stab her and I did that because he had accused the woman of hiding documents pertaining to his father’s landed property.”
Akuhwa Barnabas, a 32-year-old suspect who was hired by the deceased two months before to the event as a driver, claimed he was just required to man the gate.
He claimed, “I was hired as a driver for the deceased two months before to the occurrence, and they contacted me honestly, saying that they would pay me when they got the documentation and sold the property.
In order to prevent anyone from entering, I was instructed to stand at the gate. As soon as they were done, they departed, and I fled as well to escape being arrested.
Adikpo, in the Kwande Local Government Area, was where the following suspects were detained: Igbazenda Gbidye, 63, and Dzungwenen Ukor, 40. Earlier, while speaking to journalists in his office, the CP said, “The suspect (nephew), who eventually confessed to having planned and recruited other people to help him kill his aunty, led a team of detectives there.