However, Abigail had sent a distress message to a family member stating that “they had been kidnapped”.
The Nigerian police have been accused of complicity in the kidnapping and suspected murder of a young woman, Celine Ndudim and her Ghanaian friend, Abigail Tandor.
The two young women were said to have visited a male friend, Andrew Amechi Ochekwo, in Aba when they went missing.
According to family sources, on April 27, Celine and her friend visited Andrew in Aba.
However, Abigail had sent a distress message to a family member stating that “they had been kidnapped”.
She later sent a live Google location to one of her family members who quickly alerted Celine’s elder sister, Theresa Ndudim.
Their ordeal began at the Aba Anti-Kidnapping Unit of the state command.
Theresa told SaharaReporters that despite spending a week at the station, spending on hotels and feeding, the Aba police command failed to carry out any meaningful search.
She said, “I paid N100,000 for the tracking of my sister’s phone and another N35,000 for court, police order to the police. I got there on the 28th of April and left on the 2nd of May. However the police only went to the Panyu Hotel where the ladies went to meet Andrew.
"I begged them to let us visit the location on the live Google address shared by my sister’s friend when the alarm was raised but they waved my pleas aside.”
She noted that she went to the hotel where the ladies first met with Andrew before he took them to another location.
She also watched the CCTV footage showing Andrew driving Celine and Abigail out of Panyu Hotel in Aba, and at some point, during the trip she made with the Aba police personnel to the hotel, she saw a house with the car driven by Andrew but the policemen waved her comment aside she called their attention to it.
She said, “I saw that Andrew drove the ladies away in a car and when we were going to the hotel, on our way, I saw a building with a slightly open gate, housing the same car. I saw the same car and called the attention of the Aba unit to it but they waved my pleas for us to check the apartment aside."
After over a week, the Umuahia police command was empowered to carry out a search by the state police commissioner. It was gathered that the same house where Theresa had pleaded with the Aba command police personnel to check days earlier, was where Andrew was hiding and subsequently arrested.
Family sources told SaharaReporters that after arresting Andrew and taking him to Umuahia, the Aba anti-kidnapping commander, Amanchukwu Victor, still found his way to Umuahia.
At the place, he reportedly told the family that the two ladies were "hookup girls" and only tried to frame Andrew.
It was further gathered that the Aba police commander, Amanchukwu, accused the family of having a hand in the abduction of the two ladies, saying that the suspect, Andrew alleged that the ladies planned to get over N1 million from him and when their plan failed, they resorted to blackmail.
In her account, the elder sister of one of the victims, Theresa, told SaharaReporters that Andrew withdrew the sum of N1 million from Celine Ndudim (one of the victims) account, on the 28th of April (same day she went to report the case at Aba police division).
According to her, the Aba police command showed complicity in the issue.
“When I got to the Aba police command, I told them several times of the fact that my sister's phone was coming online and perhaps they could still track the location of the phone but despite paying N100,000, they never acted," she said.
She alleged that the police commander in Aba collected money from Andrew after he was arrested.
“We later learnt that Andrew had given money to the police several times, hence the effort to turn the case around," she said.
She also alleged that Amanchukwu told them (the family) that the suspect, Andrew, claimed that the two victims had a disagreement with him and a tricycle rider came to pick them up at the hotel.
When the family asked the police to invite the tricycle rider to unravel the mystery behind the two ladies' disappearance, the police commander reportedly said “the tricycle rider was having a wedding and when the police called him, he said he couldn’t come. Afterwards, the police have been unable to reach him and have put out a notice for the public to help in the search”.
When the police authorities in Abuja heard of the case, they asked that the case should be referred to the Federal Capital Territory command but the case never got to Abuja.
Andrew was said to have been shot dead en route to the Federal Capital Territory. A human rights activist, Gwanishu Harrison, had raised the alarm on the development.
Further Information at the disposal of SaharaReporters showed that the police officers claimed that Andrew tried to escape.
However, the victims’ families suspect foul play, and have asked “why it was taking days to get to Abuja from Abia and why Andrew was suddenly killed by the police”.
Theresa Ndudim told SaharaReporters that she saw the corpse of Andrew Ochekwo after he was killed.
The two ladies who are missing have not been found, although the families are insisting that their daughters are not dead.
Several efforts made by SaharaReporters to reach Amanchukwu on his mobile line failed.
When SaharaReporters reached out to the Force Public Relations ACP Olumuyiwa Adejobi via WhatsApp to get an update on the tragic incident, he said: "We are working on it. We will soon address the media on it."
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