Late Tony Eze
Hmmm.....According to investigations, his best friend planned and killed
him because he became envious that his business was thriving. Another reason
police said he killed him for was that, he wanted his friend to forget the N5m
he gave him last October to change. It’s a long read, but then, it makes you know
you should trust nobody. The deceased family said he was so close to their
brother that they sometimes use him to get in touch with him. Really sad. Below is how Vanguard reports it.
The circumstances surrounding the gruesome murder of Tony
Eze, a 39-year-old International businessman based in Abuja, the Federal
Capital Territory, have been unravelled by detectives attached to the Special
Anti-Robbery Squad, Force Headquarters, Abuja. The late Eze, from Umuagede
village in Nsukka L.G.A. of Enugu State met his untimely death after a night
out with friends, including a kinsman from Eha-Alumonah in Enugu State (name
withheld).
EYEWITNESS ACCOUNT
Eyewitness account said he was shot dead by two young men on
a motor bike who closed in on him while he was trying to avoid a porthole, just
a few meters away from the refreshment garden at Tungama area of Zuba in the
outskirts of Abuja. He had gone to the garden for conviviality with friends. It
was learnt that on the fateful day, November 6, 2014, the father of two was
about closing for the day’s business when his kinsman and best friend called to
request that they go out for drinks at Zuba. He was said to have initially
hesitated before reluctantly agreeing to be at the refreshment garden in the
evening.
IN THE LIONS’S DEN
He reportedly left his shop about 5pm and got to the garden
where he met three of his friends already seated and enjoying drinks. Crime
Guard gathered that about 7:20pm, they all set to leave, moving in a convoy,
with his best friend and kinsman driving the car in front. Eze was the last to
join before he was blocked and shot dead inside his car.
SYNPATHIZERS ARRIVE SCENE OF DEATH
After the owner of the garden and other sympathizers
gathered at the scene, his friends reportedly drove back claiming that they
heard a bang at their back but thought that Eze must have hit something and
that was why they continued without him.
ABANDONEMENT
Reports said that even after the arrival of his friends at
the scene, no serious efforts were made to either take him to the hospital or
contact the police at Zuba. Policemen arrived the scene around 11pm and all
efforts made to revive Eze in the hospital failed. One of the doctors was said
to have reprimanded his friends for not rushing him to the nearest hospital
immediately they arrived the scene, saying that he could have survived the gun
shots if he had been given immediate medical attention.
SARS AND PRIVATE EYE TO THE RESCUE
Nevertheless, it was gathered that police detectives of SARS
swung into action after it was noticed that the police at Zuba were lukewarm
over the ugly incident. Police sources said their efforts were complemented by
those of a Lagos-based private detectives hired by members of the family of the
deceased. According to the source: ‘’While we were combing all the nook and
cranny of Abuja for clues, the private detectives were busy spreading dragnets
all over the country and even beyond, where the deceased had business partners.
BREAKTHROUGH AT LAST
“A startling breakthrough came few weeks back after the
private detectives succeeded in arresting a suspect in possession of the phone
of the deceased which was the only item his assailants disappeared with after the
incident. The suspect turned out to be in the same Aluminium Market where late
Eze had his shop. We drilled him for long hours until he capitulated and
started confessing how they killed the innocent young man.”
CONFESSIONS GALORE
According to him, two people came to engage their services
for the job in their cult group. He gave a detailed description of them and one
of the descriptions tallied with that of the late businessman’s best friend and
kinsman who also had business in the same market with him. The suspect said
that when they asked those that came to hire them why they wanted the man dead,
they said he had been importing goods from abroad and needed to be silenced.
They were paid N1.2million, some of them got N250,000 while others got N300,000
each.”
HOW OPERATION WAS EXECUTED
Giving a vivid account of how they carried out the operation
on the day in question, the suspect said some of them arrived the restaurant
earlier than the deceased and sat by a table near where he later sat with his
best friend who hired them. ‘He said that as soon as they were ready to go, his
friend winked at them at the nearby table and they used their telephone to
flash their colleagues who were positioned outside the area as a signal that
they should proceed to hit their target. He further said they were told that he
would be coming in a car behind. So, his friend quickly drove off in front with
the deceased following behind and when they got to the point where they had to
join the expressway, the friend in front drove faster. As soon as his friend
entered the expressway two of the hired killers blocked the businessman’s car
and one of them just pulled out his gun, approached the driver’s side and
yanked open the door. While Eze was passionately pleading with them to take
whatever they needed and spare his life, the armed man shot him point blank,
picked his phone and sped off.’’
Police sources also hinted that after the arrest of five of
the suspects at the popular Aluminium Market, Abuja, his best friend confessed
during interrogation that the deceased gave him N5million to exchange for him
around October 2014, and he was yet to pay him back before he was killed. It
was learnt that initially, he wanted to be smart by diverting the attention of
detectives to focus their searchlight on one of the brothers to the deceased
but when he learnt that one of the killers had confessed to the crime, he
withdrew his allegation. Sources said detectives were still searching for the
second person that hired the killers together with the best friend to the
deceased and would soon arrest him.
FAMILY REACTS
Family sources told Crime Guard that the arrest of their
son’s supposed best friend over his death sent shock waves all over the
community. According to a member of the family who simply identified himself as
Simon( 45) : ‘’ This is the greatest shock we have received in our area in
recent times. That suspect is well known to all of us as Tony’s best friend.
They used to travel together to China on business trips. In fact, he was closer
to our brother than anybody in the family. Whenever we needed to advise our
brother, we usually channelled it through this his friend who happens to come
from Eha-Alumonah Community, a neighbouring town in Nsukka. Interestingly, this
his friend was leading pallbearers during Tony’s burial. He was the first to
arrive our compound before other of his friends and business partners arrived.
He was shedding tears uncontrollably. Even after the burial, his wife prepared
our traditional food for the bereaved family which friends usually partake in.
I can remember vividly that a few days after Tony’s burial, the suspect told
some members of our family that he (the deceased) owed some business associates
a whooping sum of N12 million and there was urgent need to settle the debt but
we swept it aside by telling him that it could come up after the mourning
period. I will use this opportunity to thank the Nigeria Police Force and the
private detectives for the success recorded so far because these startling
confessions and arrests will go a long way to assuage our deep feeling of loss.
(In tears) Now see, for how much did they take the precious life of this young,
amiable, promising and easy-going young man? Who will train his children and
take care of his young wife?
PROBABLE MOTIVE
Crime Guard further gathered that detectives were working on
the theory that his best friend was envious of his progress and the boom in his
business and hatched the plan not just to eliminate him but also to stop him
from asking for the whooping N5million he gave him to change last October. So
far, it was learnt that both the suspect that confessed to the killing and the
deceased best friend were taken separately to the scene of the crime and they
pointed out correctly the table where they sat and the point where Eze was
intercepted and killed.
POLICE AUTHORITIES INTERVENE
Meanwhile, it was learnt that on hearing the progress
recorded in the case, police authorities have directed that no stone should be
left unturned in rounding up all those remotely or otherwise connected with the
assassination of the young and promising businessman and they should be charged
to court for murder accordingly.
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