Cynthia Osokogu, the only daughter of Major General Frank Osokogu (retd), who reportedly went missing on July 22, 2012, was strangled in a hotel by students in FESTAC, Lagos,PUNCH Metro has learnt.
A senior police officer, who craved anonymity because he was not authorised to speak on the case, said the deceased was drugged, bound hand and foot and then strangled by her assailants.
Osokogu, who was a postgraduate student in Nasarawa, came to Lagos to purchase goods for her boutique.
The deceased was received at the Murtala Muhammed Airport by the students, who later took her to the hotel.
The deceased’s family is based in Jos but she went to her friend’s place in Abuja, where she parked her car before leaving for Lagos.
But the police source said on getting to the hotel, the students used a powerful drug to paralyse her and robbed her of her valuables, including an undisclosed sum of money.
The source said, “According to the confession obtained from two of the suspects, they met the deceased on the internet and lured her to Lagos to purchase goods at a cheaper rate.
“On getting to the airport in Lagos, the suspects took her to a hotel, drugged her, and bound her by hand and foot. They confessed to inflicting pains on her and strangling her before stealing her money, phone and identity card.
“The suspects confessed that their modus operandi is to lure young females to Lagos for such purpose. They said they had done it before.”
Our source said when Osokogu’s corpse was discovered by employees of the hotel, the matter was reported to the police but because her phones and identity card had been stolen, there was no way the police could ascertain her identity so her corpse was moved to Isolo General Hospital.
Our source said there were indications that an employee of the unnamed hotel was complicit and had been arrested.
He added that the pharmacist, who gave the rare drug which was used to paralyse the deceased, had been arrested as well and was suspected to be a member of the syndicate.
The police source said the case was reported at the Area E command a few weeks ago but the police only began to make headway recently when they received CCTV footage of the suspects entering the room with the victim.
The source said the police embarked on an undercover operation which led them to Ogun State to arrest one of the suspects.
“The last suspect was arrested at about 3am on Tuesday and we have almost completed investigations. However, only two of the suspects have confessed,” the source said.
When contacted, the spokesperson for the state police command, Ngozi Braide, said she could not comment on the issue.
She said, “The Commissioner of Police for the state Police command, Mr. Umar Manko, will hold a press briefing on Wednesday (today) on the issue.
“The girl was killed but all details will be disclosed during the briefing,” she said
