HOTEL STAFF STABBED THEIR GUEST TO DEATH, TOOK HIS ATM AND WITHDRAW MONEY FROM HIS ACCOUNT
Pastor Ogofotha said his goodbyes to his family on Friday morning, March 21, and then left his home in Lagos to travel to Delta State, which is his home state.
His brother was going to be laid to rest in the village the next day, and he had intended to be there. He was a native of the Owhelogbo community, which is located in the Isoko North Local Government Area of the state.
The pastor stayed at the Century Home Hotel in the Owhelogbo neighborhood after arriving in Otowe late that day. He then settled in, with the expectation that he would be able to wake up the next day to attend the burial ceremony.
Sunday, however, could not survive as he did not make it out alive.
As the Ogofotha family assembled the following day for the funeral ritual, Sunday was nowhere to be found, and his phones were turned off while he was absent.
The family started calling each other in a panicked manner to inquire about the whereabouts of the cleric by the second day, which was when the family’s nervousness began to set in.
Sunday had, fortunately, told his wife on Friday evening of the name of the hotel where he was staying as well as his room number.
This piece of information ultimately led to the exposure of the evil minds that were responsible for the murder of the clergyman.
According to reports, Mrs. Rhoda Ogofotha received a phone call from nervous members of her family who inquired about the status of her husband’s return to Lagos. She told them that he had not yet returned from the trip.
The fact that his phones had been turned off since Friday evening, which was an unusual prompted some suspicions, meant that her attempts to reach Sunday on the phone were unsuccessful.
Rhoda made a phone call to her in-laws and shared with them the information that her husband had shared with her before they lost track of each other.
The members of the family obtained this information and went to the Century Home Hotel in order to inquire about the whereabouts of Sunday. However, the manager of the hotel, Godwin Iboirode, stated that he had checked out of the hotel.
For this reason, the family decided to check out of the hotel in a state of dissatisfaction. Despite this, they went back there once more, this time with a resolute belief that someone was concealing information.
A furious disagreement broke out when members of the Ogofotha family returned to the hotel and insisted on examining each and every room.
The hotel administration apparently attempted to resist the request, which led to the escalation of the argument.
At this point, the investigation had caught the attention of the community vigilance group, which smashed the door of a specific room with force and entered it to discover a gruesome scene: the dead body of Sunday, tied to the bed, with many stab wounds all over his body.
The hotel owner, Joseph Ogbole, the hotel manager, Iboirode, the security guard, and two other members of the staff were taken into custody after the incident was reported to the Delta State Police Command.
Sunday had been killed on Friday night, according to the findings of an investigation, and his assailants, who are believed to be members of the hotel staff, took his ATM cards and withdrew money from his bank account the next day.
It was reported by a member of the community that the hotel had served as a safe haven for individuals who were suspected of kidnapping and murdering others.
“Pastor Sunday is not the only victim of their murder. Sometime last year, there was a story of a POS girl named Bethel who was said to have been killed in that hotel, too. Only God knows how many other people have innocently lodged there and fallen victim to them,” according to source who spoke with Punch.
Iboirode, in his confession, stated that after Sunday lodged at the hotel on March 21, he was contacted by two young men who wanted to meet the pastor. This was stated in a video that was uploaded to X on March 29 by Bright Edafe, who is the Public Relations Officer for the Delta State Police.
Iboirode said, “One of them was dark-skinned, and the other was fair-skinned. They told me they wanted to take something from him (Sunday), and I said ‘okay.’ Later, the guys told me that when they collect the thing from the man, they would give me N5m.
“The dark-skinned guy, named Johnson, later came out of the room, but I didn’t see the fair-skinned one, named Clement, come out. After an hour had passed, I went to check the room. When I got to that particular room, I found out that the door had been locked with a padlock. Clement had left through the exit door inside the room that people could use to leave the building.
“Later, in the evening, I began to perceive some odour from the locked door. I knew the man inside was dead, and I was afraid. I decided to escape. I ran to a woman’s house to spend the night, and when it was morning, I came out to find out how the issue was. That was when the vigilantes and community boys attacked me.
“I encountered Johnson and Clement before, around December last year, and they gave me N300,000. That time, they brought one girl to the hotel, but since that time, I have not seen the girl.
The police said that during their investigation of Iboirode’s residence, they discovered a POS machine that belonged to the girl they suspect to be Bethel.
“Johnson was the one who handed over the POS machine to me. I don’t know whether it was the guy or the girl who owned the POS machine. But I can confirm that Sunday was murdered in his room by Clement and Johnson,” Iboirode added.
According to Edafe, the hotel manager and two suspects have been taken into custody, but the authorities are “investigating to unravel what eventually happened because, to the best of our knowledge, they have not given us the full details.” Ogofotha was stabbed “multiple times until he died,” according to the PPRO. However, before he stopped communicating with his wife, he managed to reach out to her and let her know where he was. Keeping your loved ones updated on your whereabouts is crucial, which is why information is so important.
Oghole, Iboirode’s uncle, was the owner of the hotel, and he asserted that he was entirely uninformed of his nephew’s involvement in illicit activities.
It is believed that Oghole was the one who recruited Iboirode to assist in the management of the hotel; nevertheless, he was later implicated by the community for his involvement in the murder that occurred on Sunday, which finally resulted in the hotel being destroyed by irate locals.
According to Edafe, the hotel manager and two suspects have been taken into custody, but the authorities are “investigating to unravel what eventually happened because, to the best of our knowledge, they have not given us the full details.”
Ogofotha was stabbed “multiple times until he died,” according to the PPRO. However, before he stopped communicating with his wife, he managed to reach out to her and let her know where he was. Keeping your loved ones updated on your whereabouts is crucial, which is why information is so important, Edafe added.
Punch