Suspicion Of Ritual Killings Fueled In Death Of Two Delta Students In Gbagi’s Hotel Pool

Henry Omagbem

The alleged surge in killing of people with albinism, whose body parts are used in ritual practices has fueled suspicious in the death of two students at a popular hotel in Warri, Delta State, BigPen Online has learnt.

The circumstances surrounding the death of the two students, identified as Samson Omagbemi(15) and Darlington Taire(15) reportedly found dead in Golden Tulip, Effurun, near Warri in Uvwie Local Government Area of Delta State, belonging to former Minister of State for Education, Olorogun Kenneth Gbagi remain shrouded in mystery.

But family source had raised concerns of possible killing for ritual practice of the students at the hotel which was coincidentally sealed off by operatives of Federal Inland Revenue Service on Tuesday June 13 over alleged tax default after the incident on Monday.

The two boys who are from separate families but classmate in Challenge Secondary, Kolokolo in Uvwie Local Government Area was reportedly taken to the hotel by a school teacher who has since absconded.

They died on Monday June 12 but their corpse were discovered and photographed by Management Staff of the hotel on Wednesday June 14 before depositing same at the Warri Central Hospital Morgue with the alleged connivance of the police placing an order that none of their family members be allowed to see and photograph same.

It was gathered that the two students in company of others were taken to the hotel for a party under the watchful eyes of a teacher simply identified as Robinson after writing the Junior Secondary Certificate Examination on Monday June 12 after he allegedly collecting five hundred naira each from them.

The matter was incidented at the Enerhen Police Station by Rolland and Marcus Omagbemi when they noticed that their nephew was missing on Monday June 12.

The duo later informed the larger Omagbemi family which also set up a search party which visited all police formations around to check if by chance their son was arrested.

They searched the hotel swimming pool and other places with security men on guard duty as well as Staff of the hotel but could not find anyone not even in the swimming pool on Tuesday June 13.

The Omagbemi family were later called by the Ebrumede Police Station in Uvwie to come and identify the corpse lying down in the station.

Management Staff of the hotel and police officers from Ebrumede police station purportedly tendered a blurred photograph but the Omagbemi family insisted that they must see their son, Samson Omagbemi.

After so much arguments, two police officers accompanied the family to the mortuary where they identified their son, Samson and Darlington Taire with their faces already masked in the mortuary but they were prevented by mortuary attendants from photographing the deceased.

The police at Ebrumede police station did not tell BigPen Online Delta State Correspondent who brought the corpses to the Station.

The Two were said to have been arrested later and were interrogated at the Enerhen police station for allegedly bringing home the slippers of the late Samson Omagbemi.

The run away teacher it was also gathered drove the students out of the hotel that very Monday evening but whether the students went back to the hotel unknown to him could not be ascertained at press time.

Mr. Henry Omagbemi of the Omagbemi Dynasty in a chat with newsmen at the Nigeria Union of Journalists, NUJ Warri Correspondents’ Chapel confirmed the report just as he described the death of the deceased as “mysterious” stressing that he suspects a foul play especially from the way and manner the incident is being handled by the hotel management and the police.

“We went to the mortuary and saw the two students in the mortuary. They didn’t look like people who were in the pool because the mouth and their faces were bleeding. But the legs were intact. If somebody is drowned in the pool you will see some signs of swollen stuff and all that but nothing like that. Before we finished, the two people that went with us, disappeared on Wednesday.”

Omagbemi called on the Inspector General of Police, IGP Ibrahim Khotoun Idris to investigate and bring to justice anyone culpable for the deaths of the two students.

“We want justice to be done. It looks mysterious to us. We want justice
to be done. The truth of the whole thing should be told to us. Covering somebody’s corpse is something else. taking somebody’s corpse to mortuary without the knowledge of the person and all that looks suspicious.”

Mr. Morrison Taire, father of Darlington Taire corroborated the report stating that no teacher took his son and the other students to the hotel pointing out that,” As a father, I was not informed.”

A Management Staff of the hotel who craved anonymity claimed that the students drowned in the swimming pool but denied that they were brought in by a teacher.

The hotel staff said,” The students paid money on their own” insisting that, they the corpse was discovered inside the pool.

But Super Falcons of Nigeria’s head coach, in a chat with journalists from her base in the United States of America said: “Nobody in my family was aware of such arrangement between the school and my son. The lifeless body of my son and his friend were thrown into the hotel swimming pool with bruises all over their body. Somebody must have killed them.

Florence Omagbemi

“I was told that the school sent the students to different schools for the JSS 3 examination without the knowledge of their parents or guardians. While the examination was going on, one of their teachers was said to have asked the students to contribute N500 each for the purpose of the celebration in a hotel. As I said, nobody in my family was aware of such plan. Now, the teacher is nowhere to be found, and the policemen at Ebrumede Police Station are not doing anything to bring the killers of my son to book. I am in great pains right now.”

Omagbemi, who led the Falcons to the 10th AFCON title last December, beating their host, Cameroun, said she took the deceased as her son. “I took him as my son because the mother, who is my elder sister, died when Samson was very young. He did not know any other person except me as his mother. I want the police authority in Nigeria to help me fish out the killers of my son.”

However, the Golden Tulip Hotel Management, Ebrumede police station, the owner of the school and his teacher and the students who brought the slippers of late Samson Omagbemi have a case answer to ascertain if it is a case of ritual killings, BigPen Online has learnt.

The state Police Commissioner, Mr Zanna Ibrahim, who confirmed the incident in a text message to our correspondent, said, “On 14/6/2017 about 1000hrs one Mr. Collins Nwose, the General Manager of Golden Tulip Hotel, Effurun,  reported that at about 0530hrs two male corpses were found floating in the hotel’s swimming pool.

“However, the two pupils, Muntari Sidi and Feargod Edafe, who accompanied the late pupils to the said swimming pool and the swimming pool attendant,  have been arrested, ”he added.