Murdered job seeker Iniubong Umoren: Trial adjourned to February 15 for trial-within-trial

The trial of accomplices in the alleged rape, and murder of Iniubong Umoren resumed on Wednesday at the State High Court sitting in Uyo, the Akwa Ibom State capital.

A staff of the Department of Security Services, DSS, Akwa Ibom state command, Mr. Ama Okeke, gave evidence on the matter before the trial judge.

The security officer appeared as the 10th Prosecution Witness (PW10) and testified that the three accused persons made their confessional statements to the Special Incident Response unit of the DSS, Uyo.

PW10 who told the court that the first, second, and third accused persons made their statements voluntarily on June 3, 2021, June 11, 2021, and September 23rd, 2021 respectively, added that the first and second accused persons were transferred to the DSS station and their phones perused for detailed analysis.

Okeke testified as well that in the course of their investigation it was discovered that the first accused person (Uduak-Abasi Akpan) had a conversation with late miss Iniubong Umoren.

The witness further told the court that based on the statement of the investigation, the team traveled to Calabar where they tracked the late Umoren’s Samson Galaxy phone and also arrested the third accused person.

He also told the Court that while the first accused person was making his statement that his team recorded it on video.

His words: “My Lord, the first accused person (Uduak-Abasi Akpan) told our investigation team that Iniubong Umoren refused to have sex with him and struggled with him. He also told us that while the deceased was struggling with him that he observed that she sent a voice note to someone but he didn’t know to who she sent the voice note to.

” The first accused person also said the deceased repeatedly asked if he wanted to kill her and that he had told her only if she would allow him to have sex with her. He also told us that even when he overpowered the deceased, she told him that she will allow him only if he used a condom.

” The first accused person also told the investigation team that in the process of having sex with the deceased, he removed the condom and the deceased started struggling with him again. He said while he was still on top of the deceased, she carried iron and hit him on the forehead.

“He said that in order not for the deceased to shout, he Uduak-Abasi now collected a black cloth and stuffed it into her mouth and tied her mouth. He said he then used a standby stabilizer and hit her on the abdomen. From that point, the first accused said the deceased started bleeding profusely. He told us that he became afraid as if she had already died.

“The first accused also said he used the Jeans trouser of the deceased to strangle her completely. The first accused told us that he now stepped out of the house and went to the compound, found a space and dug 3 feet grave and then went back to where the body of the deceased was, dragged the body with her Jeans trouser tied on her neck to the dogged grave.

“He further told the investigating team that he wrapped her (deceased) body with a blanket and with her mouth still tied, and the Jeans on her neck and buried her in the grave. He further told us that the incident happened between 13:00hours to 20:00hours on the 29th of April, 2021”.

The trial Judge Justice Bassey Nkanang, admitted the Samsung Galaxy phone tendered in evidence by the prosecution and marked it as Exhibit 13.

Nkanang also admitted in evidence two phones belonging to the first accused person and two other Nokia phones belonging to the 2nd accused person and marked the four phones as Exhibits 14, 15, 16, and 17.

However, the prosecution at the point of tendering the confessional statement of the first accused person in evidence, his Lawyer, Samson Adula raised an objection on the grounds that the statement was not made voluntarily by his client.

Justice Nkanang adjourned the case till February 15, for a trial-within-trial to be conducted to determine the claim of involuntariness of the statement.

The three suspects in the case are Uduak-Abasi Akpan, his father Mr. Frank Akpan, and sister Anwan Bassey Akpan.