It all started with a sexual lust that became a deadly desire, which led a 26-year-old student of the Rivers State Polytechnic in Bori, Loretta Odikagbo, to sniff life out of her married lover because he was sleeping with her without giving her enough money.
According to reports, Loretta killed her victim, Charles Bankole Orisanya, an indigene of Akoko, Ondo State, whom she met on dating site, Badoo, with the help of two accomplices.
Late Orisanya, until his death, was an employee of Halliburton Company, Trans-Amadi, Rivers State, and was allegedly brutally murdered by Loretta and her gang on the September 19, 2014.
It was gathered that Orisanya’s mouth, hand and legs were taped after which Louretta allegedly covered his head with a polythene bag and sat on him until he choked to death. One of the accomplices, Ime Francis Moses Jnr., said he assisted in the murder by gripping the deceased’s neck until he became unresponsive.
Luck ran out on them and the main suspect in the case was arrested on the December 9, 2014 after investigations by the Homicide Department of the Rivers State Police Command.
She told police after her arrest that she killed her lover because he was not as forthcoming with money as she had expected.
“The basis of it all was money. When I met him, it was all promises upon promises. Along the line, the s3x was going on and the money was not coming,” she said.
“He would give me N10,000, N15,000 but that was not what I expected from him,” she added.
Louretta may have also been motivated by jealousy, revealing that she found out that he had lied to her about his relationship status.
“Also when we first met, to me, he was a single man but along the line, I discovered he was married,” she said.
The murder is a case of love turned sour, after they made physical contact following their ill-fated meeting on the relatively popular dating site.
On the day he was killed, Louretta had taken two men along after Orisanya invited her to his home.
The men hid while she made love with her man.
She later opened the door for the killers who bound Orisanya limbs, brandishing a gun-like object.
They took his ATM card and coerced him into giving them his password.
Louretta then went to an Automated Teller Machine and emptied his account.
Not satisfied, she returned and strangled him.
After Orisanya died, the two men made away with his personal items leaving his phone and laptop for Loretta.
The accused also confessed to organising the robbery so as to “get the money forcefully from Bankole (Orisanya)” but she claims that she did not participate in the actual killing.
“I took Bankole’s (Orisanya) LG phone while his laptop was brought to me the following day by my in-law. I can’t remember what the other guy took from Bankole’s (Orisanya) house. I didn’t know anything about the polythene that was used to cover his head.”
But one of the accomplices, Moses, says the strangulation was her doing.
“She came out, went to the kitchen, brought a polythene bag and said that if I did not assist her in killing the man, if the bubble burst, I would be the first person she would mention,” he said.
“She covered the man’s head with the polythene bag and sat on his head while I assisted her in holding the man’s neck until he became motionless.”
However, the Police Public Relations Office of the Rivers State Police Command, DSP Ahmad Muhammad, confirmed the story, adding that it was still under investigation.