The police have arrested a suspected internet fraudster, Orji Victor, for setting a 24-year-old lady said to be his girlfriend ablaze in Lagos.
In a statement on Sunday, the Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO) in the state, Bala Elkana, disclosed that the 19-year-old was apprehended by operatives of Iba Police Station the previous day.
He explained that the suspect confessed that he set the victim, Alabi Mariam, ablaze with petrol in the Ojo area of the state, about 10 months after they met through a hookup platform.
Victor, according to the statement, said Mariam moved into his house in March and they have since lived as lovers.
He disclosed that he brought the victim into his house with conditions that she would quit prostitution and stick to him alone, but trouble started on Thursday last week when she left home to fix her hair and did not return until the next day.
According to the suspect, Mariam also left the house on Friday under the guise of visiting her father but ended up seeing another man.
“He got to know on Saturday when she returned through her phone that he scrolled. He saw her chats, video calls, and pictures of herself naked that she sent to the client she spent the night with.
“He became angry and used the petrol he kept for his generator to set her ablaze. A team of detectives visited the scene,” the statement said.
Elkana said the suspect completed his secondary school education in 2016 at Gbagada Senior Grammar School and was seeking admission into a tertiary institution.
He was said to have been into internet fraud for the past three years and that the N600,000 he used in renting the apartment he lived with the victim was a proceed of crime.
The PPRO added that Mariam was taken to the General Hospital Igando were she was admitted but died in the early hours of Sunday.
The Commissioner of Police in Lagos, Mr Hakeem Odumosu, has ordered the immediate transfer of the case to Criminal Investigation Department Yaba.
Elkana revealed the Victor would be charged to court for murder.
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