Leaked audio: Late Iniobong Umoren’s family drags Natasha to court

Tony Okoh, Uyo

Pained by the leaked Audio discussion in which Senator Natasha Akpoti Uduaghan allegedly accused the Senate President, Senator Godswill Akpabio of killing the late Iniobong Umoren who was murdered by now convicted Uduak Frank Akpan for Organ harvesting, the deceased family has vowed to drag the embattled Senator to court for redress.

Addressing journalists on Saturday in Uyo, Miss Itoro Ephraim Umoren the Elder sister of the late job seeker who met her unfortunate death in the hands of the convicted serial rapist said the family is greatly disturbed by Senator Natasha’s leaked Audio discussion with Prof. Mgbeke which is circulating in the Social Media.

According to her, ” My sister who was waiting for her Nysc call-up letter decided to seek a temporary job and was lured with a job offer by Mr. Uduak Frank Akpan who raped, killed her and buried her in a shallow grave within his father’s compound ” when the police unveiled the crime, invited the family in which I was physically present, an autopsy was conducted and the cause of her death was established.

She further stated, ” I examined her body and everything was intact, none of her organs was tampered with and the autopsy results never said otherwise, I don’t know why people will not allow the spirit of our late sister to rest. I don’t know why in her desperation to pull the Senate President down embarked on wild and unsubstantiated allegations against the Senate President and also dragged our family into the matter. We are considering serious legal action against Senator Akpoti Uduaghan “.

Also speaking at the Press conference, Friday Johnson ITIM Esq Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Akwa Ibom State led a team of prosecuting counsels on behalf of the state in the case CHARGE NO. HU/87C/2021 said The 1st Suspect Uduak-Abasi Frank Akpan was given two counts of Murder and Rape, while the second and third Suspects were charged with the offence of Accessory After The Fact to Murder punishable under Section 329 of the Criminal code, volume 2, Laws of Akwa Ibom State 2000.

According to him, ” Throughout the process till the conviction of the now offender, there was no mention of any organ harvesting or ritual killing tankless of dragging the name of the Senate President into the matter. We were shocked to hear this and decided to put the records straight.

Speaking on the facts of the case, he intoned, “The facts of this case are encapsulated in the oral evidence of the prosecution witnesses in court, I will summarize the evidence of a few of the witnesses which when considered together proved the prosecution’s case beyond reasonable doubt, particularly against the 1st and principal suspect, Uduak-Abasi Frank Akpan. PW 4, Ifiok Ephraim Umoren is the elder sister to the deceased, Miss Iniobong Ephraim Umoren (late) and she testified that on the 29th of April, 2021, the deceased (who was awaiting call-up to NYSC National Service) left home for a job interview, Iniubong gave pw4 the phone number of the person (1st Defendant) who called her for job interview, just in case. Later that day, PW3, Uduak Joseph Umoh, a friend of the deceased who was talking with the deceased on the phone while on the way to the job interview till the deceased arrived at the venue of the purported job interview alerted PW4 that the deceased sent her a 2 seconds voice note, which was not clear, and when she, pw3 called the deceased, she heard distress screaming from the other side of the phone, and pw3 suspected that the deceased may be in trouble.

He added, “With this information, pw4 also tried severally to reach her deceased sister on the phone without success, same for the phone number of 1st defendant which the deceased had earlier given to pw4. PW3 and PW4 applied the knowledge of the internet by subjecting the 1st defendant’s phone number to some scrutiny to discover the identity of the 1st defendant and succeeded in seeing the photograph of the 1st defendant, which they posted on several internet platforms side by side with the picture of the deceased, with the caption that the deceased who was invited for a job interview by the 1st defendant was missing. As a result of the post on the internet, PW5, Miriam G. A. reached out to pw3 and pw4 that she has identified 1st defendant as the person that once lured her and raped her, she then shared the address she was taken to with pw3 and pw4 in the hope that it may be the same place that the deceased was lured to (which turned out to be so). Armed with this information, PW4 approached a police station in Uyo and reported that her sister was missing and that she believed that the deceased was in danger, but as usual the police told her to go and wait until after twenty-four hours.

“The next day 30th April 2021, the police from Anti Kidnapping followed the lead provided by pw4, and arrived at the premises of the 2nd defendant, Mr Frank Akpan (father to 1st and 3rd defendants) at Nung Ikono Obio, in Uruan Local Government Area, where the 2nd defendant, Mr Frank Akpan was arrested, he informed the police that 1st defendant left the house to Calabar, Cross River State that morning. The case was initially treated as a case of kidnapping, but the news of the arrest of the 2nd defendant soon got to PW1, Surv. Iniobong Effiong Ekpenyong, the Executive Chairman of Uruan, a nephew to the 2nd defendant, and cousin to the 1st defendant. Pw1 was in his house in the company of the DPO of Uruan Police Division, and, pw2, Kufre Michael Effiong, also a relation of both pw1 and all the defendants.Pw1, called the 1st defendant on the phone and he answered that he was in Calabar, and pw1 assured the 1st defendant that nothing would happen to him and that he should come back to Akwa Ibom State and see pw1 in his house so that the 2nd defendant, who was alleged to be ill, could be released from the police net.

” With such assurance of protection from pw1, the 1st defendant left Calabar, and returned to Uyo – meanwhile in Calabar, the 1st defendant went to the house of the 3rd defendant, his elder sister, Bassey-Anwan Frank Akpan, from where he returned to Uyo on the prompting of pw1.

On arrival in the house of pw1, he was asked about the trending news of him abducting a young girl whom he invited for a job interview, at first he denied knowledge of the allegation, upon being pressed further by pw1, the 1st defendant demanded that the police DPO who was present should leave them, so he could speak to his relations (pws1 & 2) in private.

At that point, pw1 & 2 who were at the veranda took the 1st defendant into his sitting room and asked him again about the where about of the deceased, in the belief that the 1st defendant must have held the deceased captive somewhere, but to the greatest bewilderment of pw1 and 2, the 1st defendant confessed to them that the girl (deceased) was dead.
Upon this unexpected turn of events, PW1 called on the DPO to come into the sitting room take the 1st defendant and hand them over to the Anti Kidnapping Squad at the state police headquarters.

The 1st defendant, Uduak-Abasi Frank Akpan was arrested at Anti Kidnapping Squad, where he confessed that he had killed and buried the deceased in his father’s compound at Nung Ikono Obio.

Upon such confession, menthe of the kidnapping squad was led to the scene of the crime, and shown where he buried the deceased in a shallow grave. Pw6, Inspector Samuel Udoh dug the spot shown to them, and to the chagrin of all the policemen, the corpse of the deceased was found, exhumed and deposited in the mortuary.

At this point, the case changed from suspected kidnapping to Murder, and the case file was moved to the Homicide section. In the homicide section, the 1st defendant confessed again that he murdered the deceased because the deceased insisted that he should use a condom to rape her, and when in the middle of the rape, he removed the condom, the deceased became violent and hit him, and he retaliated and hit her on the head and the abdomen with pressing iron and an electric stabilizer causing the deceased to bleed and became unconscious.

When the 1st defendant saw that the deceased was unconscious, he used the jean trousers that the deceased wore, tied them around her neck and strangled her, then dragged the deceased body by the jean trousers from the room to a place within the premises where he dug a shallow grave and buried the deceased

The defending Counsel was led by Barr. Adula Sampson who provided legal services for the convicted murderer during the press briefing said the allegations made in the leaked viral audio linking the Senate president to the death of the late Umoren are disturbing sad and very unfortunate urging Senator Akpoti Uduaghan to refrain from such dirty politics “.