Imo Police command has arrested the owner of a hotel after youths of Umulogho community in Obowo Local Government Area have burnt part of his hotel building over the alleged killing of a staff, Ebuka Nwaneri, for reportedly stealing a phone at the weekend belonging to a military personnel.
The owner of the hotel, Ibe Obasi and phone owner, a military personnel, who came to the hotel to relax allegedly accused the staff of stealing the missing phone.
A source from the community, who narrated the incident to The Nation, said the deceased was locked up in a generator house to make him confess to the crime.
But the victim, according to the source, later died from the alleged torture.
His corpse was reportedly thrown over the fence of the hotel to the adjoining bush by the suspects.
But youths in the community later found the corpse on Saturday morning.
A source in the community said: “The deceased was working for the suspect and a phone got lost,the phone belonged to a military man on duty at the community.
“He went to the hotel for relaxation and his phone got lost. The hotelier and the security officer in a bid to recover the phone started beating him, before locking him up in his generator house inside the premises of the hotel.
“When he found out that he had died, they threw him over the fence of the hotel to avoid being suspected.”.
Angry youths of the community stormed the hotel and set part of it ablaze.
They also threatened reprisal attack on family members of the hotelier if nothing was done to bring him to book over the incident.
Another source from the community, Chimezie Mbakwe, who confirmed the incident appealed to the police to transfer the case from the Otoko Divisional Police Station where the suspect is being held to the headquarters to avoid mob action.
Youth President of the community, Chinagorom Cyriacus, urged youths of the area to remain calm assuring all those responsible would be brought before the law.
He said: “We also want to assure the good people of Umulogho that the perpetrators of this inhuman act must be brought to book at all means.
“We also want to urge all more importantly the youths to stay calm and not to take further action or take laws into their hands.
“We want to assure the people that the leadership of Umulogho Autonomous Community at all levels are working so hard to arrest the situation more especially the ongoing massive arrest by the military.”
A reliable police source said that the Imo Police Command has taken over charge of the looming crisis in the troubled community.
Contacted, the Army PRO Joseph Akubo, said: “We are conducting investigation to find out if any of our soldiers are involved in the incident. If anybody shows sign of indiscipline, we will not shield any of our soldiers involved.
“The Army has no place in any of this and our commander has directed that if any soldier is found guilty, he will face the music.”