Uduak-Abasi Akpan Admitted Raping, Killing Iniubong — Police

• I didn’t write that statement – Suspect

A police officer, Inspector Samuel Udoh, on Wednesday told an Akwa Ibom State High Court sitting in Uyo that Uduak-Abasi Akpan, the first accused person in the murder of job seeker, Iniubong Umoren, had confessed to raping and killing the deceased.

Inspector Samuel Udoh, who is the sixth (6th) prosecution witness in the trial of Uduak-Abasi Akpan, his father, and elder sister, over the murder of Umoren, also told the trial judge, Justice Bassey Nkanang, that the suspect voluntarily led the police investigation team to his father’s compound in Uruan Local Government Area and showed them the shallow grave he buried the remains of late Umoren.

However, when shown the copy of a confessional statement to be admitted in evidence, the suspect Uduak-Abasi, after going through each page of the statement, confirmed that the name and signature on the statement were his but denied writing the statement, saying, “It is not my statement.”

In his evidence yesterday, Udoh, attached to the anti-kidnapping squad, Police Headquarters, Ikot Akpan Abia, told the court that when the first accused person’s lawyer, Emmanuel Ekiko, arrived at Ikot Akpan Abia Police headquarters, he and the first accused person’s father, Mr Frank Akpan, were both witnesses to his voluntary confessional statement.

According to him, the first accused person confessed to advertising a non-existing job, which attracted the deceased, Iniubong Umoren, as well as directing her to the storey building on the arrival in his father’s compound in Uruan.

The officer further told the court that the suspect confessed to raping the victim with the use of a condom but during his second attempt to rape without a condom, the deceased began struggling, adding; “The first accused person said the struggle continued to a point he used a stabiliser to hit Iniubong Umoren’s head, she fell and became unconscious. He said he hit her again at the lower abdomen and she died.

“He further confessed using a shovel to dig a shallow grave in his father’s compound close to a Mango tree, and then used a cloth to tie her remains on the neck and dragged the body to the shallow grave, and used a blanket and pillow to cover the body before covering it with sand”, Inspector Udoh said.

Udoh informed the Court that the suspect, after writing his statement, also read it  and confirmed same to be his statement in the presence of his lawyer and father, adding that he confessed to the crime without any intimidation, torture or inducement of any kind.

However, before Justice Nkanang suspended the main trial and ordered that a trial-within-trial be conducted, a mild drama had played out when a copy of the said confessional statement was shown to the suspect at the dock. After perusing each page of the statement, Uduak-Abasi Akpan, though confirmed the name and signature as his, denied ownership of the statement.

“It is not my statement”, he insisted even as his defence counsel, Samson Adula, raised an objection when the prosecution counsel sought to tender the controversial statement as evidence.

Claiming that the confessional statement was obtained under duress, Adula said in several conversations with his client, the first accused person, Uduak-Abasi Akpan told him how the Police induced him to make the confessional statement.