A police inspector, Bassey Ikpe, has been arrested for the alleged murder of a widow in Akwa Ibom State.
Mr Ikpe is said to have beaten Deborah Nkpenie to death on January 16.
Akwa Ibom police spokesman, Odiko Macdon, said in a statement on Wednesday that the police commissioner, Edgal Imohimi, ordered the arrest of the inspector.
Mr Macdon said that the police commissioner instructed the Deputy Commissioner, State Criminal Investigations Department (SCID) to carry out thorough investigation into the matter.
The spokesman said that the decision of the police to look into the alleged murder was informed by news reports about the incident.
An eyewitness, who did not want to be mentioned, said the incident took place in the morning of January 16, following the invitation of the deceased by the policeman, who was an Investigating Police Officer (IPO) in an ongoing case.
The siblings of the deceased’s late husband reported her to the police over their brother’s property.
Sister of the deceased, Mfonobong Peter, explained that the inspector entered the bedroom of the deceased to forcefully dress her up.
She said that the IPO went wild with the allegation that the deceased was lying about her state of health in order to escape being arraigned in court.
“My late sister was beaten to death by Inspector Bassey Ikpe. He had threatened her repeatedly since this matter came up,” she said.
“My sister had waist pains arising from the dislocation she had while caring for her late husband. This made it difficult for her to move about freely.
“She had become almost bedridden because of the difficulty in movement. She was highly hypertensive due to the health complications that led to her husband’s death.
“But this policeman refused to heed the advice of the Deputy Commissioner of Police. I don’t know what personal interest he had in the matter.
“He had forced her to come to the police station so that they could appear in court on a fictitious criminal charge, against the advice of the deputy commissioner of police the previous day. He beat my sister to death.”
