Court remands UNIPORT student accused of killing girlfriend

A 400-level Petrochemical Engineering student of the University of Port Harcourt, Damian Okoligwe, has been remanded in prison by a Magistrate Court for the alleged murder of his girlfriend, Justina Otuene, a 300-level student of Biochemistry at the same university.

Okoligwe was accused of killing the victim for ritual purposes on October 25 at his residence and was arrested after his neighbours raised an alarm over his attempt to dispose of the body.

He was earlier paraded at the Rivers State Police Command headquarters in Port Harcout, where he admitted that his girlfriend died in his house but denied killing her.

When he was arraigned at the court on Monday, the prosecuting counsel appealed to the Chief Magistrate, Nnenda Obiageri-Onugbum, to remand the accused based on the gravity of the offense.

After listening to the submissions of the prosecution and the defence counsel, Obiageri-Onugbum, ruled that the Okoligwe be remanded in the Port Harcourt Correctional Centre and ordered that the case file be transferred to the Department of Public Prosecution, DPP, for legal advice.

Obiageri-Onugbum thereafter adjourned the case to December 15 pending the DPP report.

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