An Assistant Pastor with the Assemblies Of God Church, Obudu road, Ikom, Cross River State, Pastor Esther Neji, has been murdered after allegedly being raped.
It was gathered that Neji, a recently engaged bride-to-be, was allegedly overpowered and raped to death at her apartment.
Speaking to journalists yesterday in Ikom, Rev Solomon Ajuk, a senior cleric in her church, said: “We only discovered that since Sunday, we’ve not seen her.
“During the course of the week, we decided to visit her to ascertain if she was well. On getting to her house, we perceived an offensive odour with her door still locked.
“We contacted the police who came and we forced the door open, only to see her lying between the parlor and her room with a pool of blood on her bed.
“Her forehead had a wound where she was hit. A wrapper was on her neck, her pant was carelessly thrown suggesting that she was rapped and killed. That’s the police preliminary investigation.”
Ajuk added that her house was scattered, suggesting that there was a struggle before she was over powered, raped and killed.
Confirming the development, the Divisional Police Officer of Ikom Police Station, Aluyi Abdulazez, said a team of medical doctors who carried out an autopsy on her, stated that she was raped.
“We are now carrying out detailed investigation to unravel those behind the act,” he said.
