Second defendant in the murder trial of Ifeanyi Dike and two others has said he knew he was arrested because of a text message allegedly sent him by first defendant, Ifeanyi Dike.
Ugochukwu Nwamiro made the acknowledgement as he was cross-examined by the Principal State Counsel in the case, Barrister Chidi Eke, in which he was asked if he knew he was arrested by police because of an alleged text message sent to him from first defendant.
The first defendant had allegedly sent a text message to Nwamiro in which he allegedly said he had got human body parts as requested by the second defendant, but the second defendant during cross-examination at Port-Harcourt High Court presided over by Justice Adolphus Enebeli on Friday said although he received a text message he deleted it after reading the message.
He did not say whether or not the text message was from Ifeanyi Dike and also did not say what the message was about.
When told by the cross-examiner that he deleted the text message because he didn’t want people to see it, Nwamiro said it was not true saying he didn’t delete the message to prevent people from reading it.
As he took questions from Barrister Eke during cross-examination, Nwamiro laughed once or twice before answering some of the questions.
The principal state counsel asked why he requested only call logs from his phone from MTN and Nwamiro said he asked for only call logs from MTN through his lawyer and not logs of text messages received in his phone.
In an interview, Barrister Eke who is a principal state counsel in Department of Public Prosecutions, Rivers State Ministry of Justice, and represents the Rivers State Government in the case said the alleged text message sent to Nwamiro by first defendant could be retrieved from MTN.
He said: “From day one, he knew that text is the issue… If he wants to prove his innocence, what he needed to do… is to prove that no such text message was sent to him, but the idea of going to bring MTN call log without text message, we didn’t say whether they called him on phone or not. They sent him a message, we needed to see that message.
“If we ask for it, I’m very certain (we’ll find it)… because that text message is in the phone of the first defendant. It was opened in this court… the text message was therein contained in the phone of the first defendant… He didn’t deny that he received such a text message but he said he didn’t know who sent it”.
The principal state counsel said the text message was “very implicating” for second defendant asking why the second defendant didn’t call sender of the text message or the police.
Ifeanyi Dike, Ugochukwu Nwamiro and Sergeant Johnbosco Okoroeze are facing prosecution in court for alleged murder of an eight-year-old girl Chikamso Victory Nmezuwuba in Eliozu in Obio/Akpor Local Government Area of Rivers State.
First defendant in the case is Ifeanyi Dike while the second and third defendants are Ugochukwu Nwamiro and Sergeant Johnbosco Okoroeze.
The first defendant allegedly murdered the eight-year-old girl on 18 August, 2017 and removed some of her body parts and had allegedly sent a text message to the second defendant to say he had got the body parts he wanted him to get, for alleged money ritual.
The third defendant is being prosecuted for allegedly assisting first defendant to escape from State Criminal Investigation and Intelligence Department (SCIID) in Port-Harcourt after police had arrested him on 19 August, 2017 over the alleged murder.
Sergeant Okoroeze was dismissed from Nigeria Police Force.
The case was for continuation of cross-examination of second defendant when it came up before Justice Enebeli on Friday.
Ifeanyi Dike, Ugochukwu Nwamiro and Johnbosco Okoroeze were brought handcuffed to court.
Justice Enebeli adjourned the case at the end of cross-examination to 26 July for continuation of defence.
