According to Daily Trust, a 37-year-old man paraded by the police in Edo State for allegedly killing 38 people in the state has said he made the confession due to the torture he received during interrogation.
The suspect, Frank Okoeboe, who hails from Irua, Esan Central Local Government Area of the state, was paraded along eight other suspects arrested for alleged involvement in various crimes.
It was gathered that Okoeboe, who had been on the police radar for a while, was tracked after allegedly making calls about his next target, unknown to him that he was being monitored by the police. It was gathered that after the call, the suspect was arrested with two guns allegedly found on him.
It was also learnt that two other guns were later recovered from his house during a search. Police said the suspect was a serial killer and that he had confessed to have killed 38 people during investigation.
However, in an interview with journalists, the suspect denied killing 38 people, saying that his confession was due to torture.
“I was arrested in my area, but I did not kill anybody. I confessed to the crime because of serious beating.
“I was arrested with two cut-to-size guns. In my area Uneru, we were doing vigilante and I am the vice chairman of the vigilante. The arms are not mine, someone gave them to me to keep for him. When I was arrested, we went to the person’s house, but he was not around.
“Before he gave me the guns, he told me he was going to travel abroad, so when he gave me the guns, I said since armed robbers were disturbing us in our area, I would tell the vigilante chairman so that we can use them to protect our area from robbers, but police arrested me before I could tell him,” he said.
He said he was formally a member of the Black Axe confraternity but that he renounced his membership five years ago.