Image
November 4, 2024
Chidiebere went to Hotel Royal Damgrete in Umuahia, Abia State on April 9, 2024, along with two fellow Cadet officers to swim but he was later pronounced dead under questionable circumstances.
Two Cadet officers who are reportedly involved in the death of Nigerian Air Force Tarmac Four cadet officer Emmanuel Chidiebere Onyeomereneche have been dismissed and currently detained in a cell by the Nigeria Military Police, SaharaReporters learned on Monday.
Chidiebere went to Hotel Royal Damgrete in Umuahia, Abia State on April 9, 2024, along with two fellow Cadet officers to swim but he was later pronounced dead under questionable circumstances.
Shortly after, the Abia state police command declared in a report that Chidiebere drowned in the hotel’s swimming pool but Chidiebere' father rejected the police report, claiming that his son was murdered.
Following this, an autopsy was conducted on June 29 and the result revealed the probable cause of his death.
SaharaReporters reported in September that a source said the autopsy confirmed that the officer was likely murdered and thrown into the swimming pool to make it look like he drowned.
The autopsy result which was exclusively published by SaharaReporters, shows that the late Air Force Cadet officer died as a result of intracranial haematoma and skull fracture at occipital & right parietal region.
The father of the deceased person, Mr. Ephraim Onyeomereneche, had insisted that his son was murdered.
He linked Chidiebere's death to Cadet officer Valentine Ucheji Obeji, his son's colleague and friend, along with his brother, a police officer identified as Eric Obeji.
Onyeomereneche alleged that Valentine's motive was to eliminate his son, who was a top performer at the Nigerian Defence Academy (NDA), to improve his own chances of becoming an Air Force pilot after graduation as they were told that only one person would be taken from each geopolitical zone.
However, Saharareporters gathered on Monday that Valentine Obeji and Peter, the two Cadet officers who went with Chidiebere to the hotel, have been dismissed from the Nigeria Defence Academy (NDA) and handed over to the Military Police.
A senior military officer told SaharaReporters that Valentine Obeji was recalled from military pilot training in the UK a few weeks ago.
When SaharaReporters reached out to Onyeomereneche, he said: "Information we are getting is that Cadet officer Peter has been dismissed from the NDA. We also got information that Valentine Obeji succeeded in getting that post for which he allegedly killed Chidiebere, my son and he was undergoing training in the UK.
“So, on Friday, a memo came up that he should be recalled. I understand that he has been recalled. I understand that he's under the process of Court Marshal and would be dismissed and handed over to the police.
"They were three cadet officers- Peter, Val and Chidiebere, my son. They were three but Peter did not get to the house. Peter probably stopped along the way but at the hotel, the three of them were there.
"Then, because Peter was still in Nigeria, he was arrested and dismissed and now with the military police. Peter is no more in the NDA; he is now in the guardroom of military police. And Val has been recalled back to Nigeria. He has been dismissed from the NDA. It is believed that he is also with Peter in the military guardroom. He has been brought into Nigeria."
Regarding the Police Divisional Crime Officer, DCO II, Eric Obeji, who is Valentine’s elder brother, Onyeomereneche alleged that he had been working together with a former Abia State police commissioner to scuttle the investigation.
"From all indications, every effort we made at the Abia State came to nothing," he said, but expressed confidence that with the arrival of a new police commissioner, the investigation will be concluded.