More than 40 days after 18-year-old Ikechukwu Friday was arrested and detained for murder at the State Criminal Investigations Department, Homicide Section ‘D4’, Lagos, the teenager is yet to be charged to court.

Ironically, the controversial Pastor Ofuche Ukoha, popularly known as Dr. Sign Fireman, who was fingered as an accomplice in the murder of the 12-year-old victim identified as Bose, has since been granted bail and returned home to continue with his church ministry.

Asked why Ikechukwu is still in detention, Lagos State Police spokesperson, Ngozi Braide, said it is because of procedural issues, adding: “Ikechukwu committed murder by killing the victim. Pastor Fireman was only alleged by the suspect. Since there is no evidence yet against Fireman, he was granted bail.”

It would be recalled that the SCID on January 6 paraded Ikechukwu for strangling 12-year-old Bose in an uncompleted building after calling her out from her mother’s cafeteria, where she was serving food to customers.

When the suspect beckoned on Bose and took her to the uncompleted building, the girl had innocently followed because she knew him.

An eyewitness had seen Ikechukwu snuffing life out of the girl and screamed, alerting people around, leading to his arrest. The suspect later fingered Pastor Fireman as the person who dangled a reward of N100,000 if he could succeed in bringing the faeces of a virgin to him.

According to Ikechukwu, his pastor allegedly said he wanted to use the deceased girl’s faeces to resurrect dead people.

Fireman is the General Overseer of Perfect Christianity Mission, located around Aguda area of Lagos.

Ikechukwu denied that he wanted to use the slain girl for ritual purpose, insisting that he needed money and had approached the pastor, who asked him to strangle a teenage girl to death and come back with her excreta in order to get money.

According to Braide, “The case file had already been sent to Directorate of Public Prosecution. It’s not all cases that are sent to DPP. Only special cases. Right now, police cannot do anything about the case, pending DPP’s advice. It’s DPP’s advice that will determine who will be charged to court. Fireman was granted bail with reliable sureties. If the time for court comes, depending on DPP’s advice, he would be re-arrested and taken to court.”

•Photo shows Lagos PPRO Ngozi Braide.

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