by crossriverwatch admin
One Abraham Bepeh, the son of a pastor in Betukwel Village in Obudu Local Government Area of Cross River State has been arrested by the police for allegedly killing his friend identified as Richard Beshel Mashok with whom they have been having running battle over a girlfriend, Miss Anna Ushie.
Abraham is now in the cell of the State Criminal Investigation Department (SCID) at the state Police Headquarters –Diamond Hill in Calabar, where the Officer-in-Charge (OC) of homicide, Mr. Joseph Inuyashe said he is to explain what caused him to kill the deceased.
According to the police, during interrogation, Abraham described his victim as “my close friend”, alleging that “Richard was the first who attempted to eliminate me over the girl both of us are in love with, Miss Anna Ushie, a student Immaculate (Annunciation) Secondary School, Ohong”.
To convince the Police, Abraham who displayed some scars on his neck, legs, hands and chest and alleged that he had
a lingering faceoff with the deceased and he regularly inflicted him with machete cuts.
Abraham is a school dropout having dropped out of school at JSS3 because of cult activities, while the deceased was said to have recently graduated with a degree in Education and was attached to Immaculate (Annunciation} secondary school Ohong-Obudu as a teacher.
Reports have it that Richard hailed from Betukwel Village a nearby community to the Ohong village where Abraham hails from.
On the day of the incident, Richard was said to have just left a barbing salon where he went to cut his hair and was taking his clothes to a dry cleaner when he ran into Abraham who accosted him, saying they should finish what they had started some weeks ago.
A fight was said to have ensued between them and Abraham reportedly brought out a dagger and stabbed the deceased on his neck and took to his heels in an attempt to escape arrest and possible jungle justice but some boys went after him and caught him.
“Chiefs and leaders from the two communities, had waded into the matter, advising the duo to shield their sword and embrace peace but they did not”. A source said.
Richard, our source said was fined a live goat, and Abraham two cartons of star beer by the chiefs to end the rift, but Abraham stood in their midst and protested, saying the fine imposed on Richard was not proportionate to series of assault the deceased had unleashed on him.
Determined to fight on, Abraham boasted in anger at the village square saying, “you have enjoyed your goat meat and two cartons of bear, for me it is not over until it is over”
“Efforts to save Richard’s life did not yield any result as he died before reaching the Obudu General Hospital where he was rushed to for medical attention”
Abraham who spoke with crossriverwatch in his cell said “the boy was a secret cult member. He was initiated into Vikings in 2002, long before I was initiated.
“We used to fight ourselves because of one girlfriend we were sharing and I told him that since he had seized Anna from me, let him leave me alone but he would not. Whenever we come across each other, he would ask me if I am coming for attack, opening his shirt to show me a locally made pistol concealed in his trouser”.
Abraham whose father is a pastor lamented that his Clergy father always advised him to give his life to Christ and avoid nefarious acts, but he did not listen as he wanted to move with modern trend, to be seen as a “hard guy”.
The Cross River State Police Command spokesman, DSP John Imoh said the police was going to carry out detailed investigation into the case, as the suspect “has mentioned other members of his cult group that we must go after”.
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