A youth leader’s fabricated testimony has landed him in hot water with the law. He claimed he was kidnapped but had earlier fled the scene of a possible homicide.
Tuamene Nwibiagbor, the newly married Youth President of the Methodist Church in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, was arrested by plainclothes detectives after a church service where he gave dramatic testimony about escaping from kidnappers while the congregants glorified the name of God and repeatedly shouted “Hallelujah” as he delivered his theatrics on this purported encounter with the supposed kidnappers on May 14, which he claimed led to him losing his phone.
But the truth was far from his tale of divine deliverance. Nwibiagbor had actually been involved in a romantic tryst with a married mother of three, Mrs. Perpetual Okeke, at a hotel on May 14. The two had reconnected at his wedding just 17 days earlier and had arranged to meet secretly. According to police investigations, they were lovers during their days at the Educational Management Department of Rivers State College of Education (currently known as Ignatius Ajuru University of Education).
Following their encounter at the hotel, Nwibiagbor left without the woman and never returned. Hotel staff discovered her lifeless body and alerted the police, who began investigating the suspicious death.
Members of the force combed through CCTV footage and traced Nwibiagbor’s phone, which he had switched off. They tracked him to the church where he was giving his fake testimony and arrested him.
Initially, Nwibiagbor denied any involvement or knowledge of the woman’s death, but when police found the outfit and bag he wore that day, he confessed to being with her. He claimed she started sneezing and convulsing after their encounter and he fled since he was unable to help her.
The police commissioner, CP Olatunji Disu, praised the officers for their urgent and professional handling of the case. An investigation is currently ongoing to determine the exact cause of death, including whether any drugs or substances were involved.
