… Photos hit the internet
Okafor Ofiebor/Port Harcourt
Residents of Rivers State are waiting for police comments on photographs and video footage allegedly from Close Circuit Television Cameras, CCTV cameras of a hotel in Port Harcourt said showing a young man alleged to be behind recent killing of ladies in hotel rooms in Port Harcourt.
Police say at least eight ladies have strangle at different hotels in Port Harcourt in the past two months.
Some women groups had on Wednesday embarked on protest asking the police to put an end to the killings.
But the video footage and the photographs which surfaced on the internet on Wednesday evening have now gone viral on the internet with claim by some commentators that the images are that of one of the suspects behind the recent serial killings.
Mrs Ibim Semenitari,a CNN award winning journalist, publisher and former Commissioner for Information and Communications in Rivers are among those who have shared the photo and footage online.
Mrs Semenitari, who was former Acting Managing Director of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) posted on her Facebook wall: “This is the face of the alleged serial killer in Port Harcourt, Rivers state from the CCTV video. Faceboook name: Gracious David West”.
Another post credited to the Apostle Chibuzor Gift Chinyere, General Overseer, Omega Power Ministry said: “This same Gracious David West was an ex-militant and a renowned armed robber that was rehabilitated by OPM church.. The church even helped him to secure a job in Federal university of Technology, but he went there to steal properties belonging to students and bolted.
Some commentators also claimed that the suspect, who is the only son of his father was declared wanted by the police in June 2018 over involvement in criminal activities.
As at the time of filing the report, the Police have not reacted to the viral photos.
The Rivers Police spokesman had on a radio programme in Port Harcourt on Wednesday morning claimed two suspects have been arrested over the killings.