.“..I don’t Carry guns, I use knife to cut bed sheets into ropes to strangulate my victims”
“…I survive on money, jewelry stolen from my victims.”
… Serial Killer is not acting alone – CP Dandaura
The 39- year old notorious serial killer of women in hotels, Gracious David West, from Buguma in Asari-Toru local government area of Rivers State has confessed that he had actually killed’ a total of seven people and started killing from Ikeja, Lagos before moving to Owerri in Imo State and Port Harcourt, Rivers State.
He confessed that in Port Harcourt, he killed five persons, one in Ikeja and another in Owerri and survived on the money he stole from the victims’ accounts by using their ATMs cards.
He made the confession today, Friday, 20 September while being paraded by Mustapha Dandaura, the Commissioner of Police at the Rivers State Police Headquarters.
On the motive behind his actions, he said: “I don’t know what always came over me to kill. After I had killed, I would feel remorse and then I would cry. But after that, the irresistible urge to kill would come over me again. I killed alone.”
About belonging to a Cult group, he said “I was a member of the Degbam Cult group, I have since repented. I was not killing for any cult group. I just killed. I don’t know what always came over me to kill.”
About how he had been surviving, he revealed: “The first woman I killed in one of the hotels at Ikeja had about N85,000 in her account.
“Before I strangulated them after love making, I would use knife to cut the hotel bed sheets into a semblance of a twine or rope which I used to bind their hands and feet. I used the knife also to threaten them. The kitchen knife was sold to me by an Aboki. I threatened that if my victims raised alarm I would kill them with the knife. Out of fear, they would keep quiet while I raised the volume of the television set in the hotel room to dwarf any noise. I never killed with the knife.”
Gracious David West also revealed that before he killed his female victims, he insisted on knowing their account balance and ATM pins.
“After strangulating them, I would steal their ATM cards, empty their accounts from any nearby ATM machine and move on. It is not all the girls I slept with that I killed. I killed only whenever the irresistible urge to kill overwhelmed me. l don’t have a house. My mother died through poisoning from her mate and I am homeless. I sleep in hotels.”
He also revealed that he sold the phones he stole from his victims to a customer in Waterlines Junction off Port Harcourt/Aba Expressway and another buyer around MTN office by Oil Mill Market in Port Harcourt.
He also confirmed that he was one of the ex-militants rehabilitated by the Omega Power Ministry (OPM), that he secured a job for Federal University of Science and Technology (FUTO), Owerri, through the Church but he bolted with students’ properties.
The suspect who at a point broke down in tears also told journalists that he tried to seek spiritual deliverance from Christ Chosen Church. He was also in Salvation Ministries but to no avail because he couldn’t secure accommodation to follow through.
CP Dandaura disclosed that his insistence on hotels in the state to install Close-Circuit Television Cameras (CCTVs), had yielded results. He vowed that the Police under his command would fight crimes headlong in the state.
He said with joint operations with the Army and other security agencies, the killings in Ogoniland are dropping, while “I have stabilized East-West road, the Elele-Owerri road.
Dandaura called on political gladiators in the state to come together and move the state forward and that the Command under him would be nonpartisan in the discharge of its duties.
He stated further: “The suspect is definitely not alone in these killings, though he has made useful confessions but the Command will go beyond his confessions to ensure that a conclusive end is achieved that serves the interest of Justice .
He said so far three suspects are in Police custody and are being investigated in connection with these killings, assuring that they will be paraded soon as soon as investigations are concluded.
Our Correspondent who was at the Police headquarters observed curiously that despite knowing that he was on the wanted list by the Police, he never changed his stripped T-shirt and pair of jeans trousers. He used to have them washed by the laundry of the hotels he lodged after which he would put them on when dried before checking out.
By TheNEWS (www.thenewsnigeria.com.ng)