By Ebele Boniface/ THE NATION

A 29-year-old man has paid the supreme price for telling his friend about a heavy sum his South Africa based elder brother sent to him for the completion of his (elder brother’s) housing project back home in Nigeria.

Abuchi Wisdom Nwachukwu, was allegedly murdered by Moses, his friend and colleague, after informing the latter that his elder brother had sent him the sum of N13 million to complete his housing project.

Nwachukwu, a native of Isiala-Mbano, Imo State, was allegedly hacked to death by Moses on January 7, 2020, during a night shift at the table water company where they worked in Auchi, Edo State, after which he took possession of Nwachukwu’s phone and ATM card.

Moses also went on to behead Nwachukwu’s lifeless body so that it would be recognized, dumping the headless body in a bush close to the company.

After getting rid of Nwachukwu, Moses took the latter’s phone and ATM card to some internet fraudsters in Auchi who helped him to withdraw the sum of N2.2 million from Nwachukwu’s account.

Thereafter, Moses approached various POS points in the city to withdraw various sums of money.

The police were puzzled when they Nwachukwu’s headless body but could not identify him. They took the body to the mortuary while Nwachukwu’s relatives in Imo State as well as his brother in South Africa worried about his sudden disappearance and their inability to reach him on the phone.

His South Africa based brother was said to have written a petition to the Inspector General of Police, Adamu Mohammed, months after he could not locate his brother or hear from him. Operatives of the Intelligence Response Team (IRT), headed by Abba Kyari, a Deputy Commissioner of Police, swung into action to unravel the mystery behind Nwachukwu’s disappearance.

It was gathered that weeks into their investigation IRT operatives were able to trace the POS transactions Moses did with Nwachukwu’s ATM cards to Benin, Ore and Auchi parts of Edo State.

They later arrested him in a hotel in Auchi where he was hiding.

Upon interrogation, Moses admitted killing Nwachukwu. He also led IRT operatives to arrest suspected internet fraudsters—Yusuf Sagiru, Tony Bright and Terence Okochukwu—as well as businessman Jahswill Ogbonnaya, who were said to have helped Moses to pull out the sum of N6 million from the account.

Upon interrogation, Moses a 27-year-old native of Auchi, said his friend’s ghost had been hunting him since the day he killed him.

The Auchi Polytechnic graduate of Mechanical Engineering said: “I work in a table water company in Abely area of Auchi, and I have been working in that company in the last four years.

“When Nwachukwu got a job in the factory, I was the person who taught him how to operate the machine, so we became very close friends.

“While we were working, Nwachukwu told me about his brother who lives in South Africa and how he has been sending money to build his house for him.