Justice for Gabriel: Murder in the Cathedral!

These are chairs with blood stains belonging to Living Faith Church alias Winners Chapel, Atakpa Ifa Ikot Ubo Etoi in Ifa Ikot Okpon, Uyo where Mr. Gabriel Bassey Edward, a final year student of Civil Engineering, University of Uyo was murdered.

The prime suspect, one “pastor” Prince Emmanuel Umoh was the last person seen with the deceased.

The suspect (in the attached photo) removed the Church pulpit and other things out of the Church the same day that Gabriel was murdered. He claims that he wanted to paint the pulpit. But there is nothing wrong with the pulpit.

Constitutional lawyer and human rights activist, Inibehe Effiong

In any event, which pastor will move out a pulpit (a sacred object) out of the Church premises to his personal house?

He never painted the said pulpit.

Even if he wanted to paint it, the Church premises and the compound are spacious enough. It doesn’t make iota of sense, particularly given the long distance from the Church to his house. Even the senior pastor who supervises this so-called pastor Prince Emmanuel expressed shock at the movement of the pulpit from the Church. The suspect said initially that he told the senior pastor before moving out of pulpit, but the senior pastor denied this false claim to his face.

The same pastor Prince Emmanuel changed the sitting arrangements in the Church and moved the chairs away from the usual area which is close to the part of the building where Gabriel Iived (the corpse of the deceased was dumped in his room after he was murdered) on the same day.

Was this done to reduce the odour from the corpse?

When the police went for a search in the house of the suspect, they found a jotter belonging to the deceased in his house (with the name of the deceased boldly inscribed on it). The jotter is one of the missing items stolen from the house of the deceased.

Neighbours heard repeated screams of “Jesus” the day Gabriel was killed.

They ran out only to see the suspect who claimed that he was the person who shouted after he fell down. He claimed that he wanted to host a banner on the wall. However, upon a visit to the scene, he could not show where he wanted to host the banner.

Neighbours saw him with a bucket on the said date. There was blood stains on the bucket and on his cloths. When they asked him, he claimed that he sustained injury after he fell down but he could not show the said injury.

At the Shelter Afrique police station, all that he showed was an old minor scratch on his hand which cannot explain the degree of blood stains and traces of blood found on the floor, bucket, chairs and his cloths.

There are still traces of blood on the floor of the Church (please note that the Church is a hall owned by Gabriel’s mother who passed on in 2019). The hall was partitioned, and the larger part rented to Winners Chapel while Gabriel lived in a small part.

Gabriel repeatedly complained about missing items in his house. Only the pastor and Gabriel had keys to the premises and the house of the deceased where he used to keep some items belonging to the Church.

Items stopped missing the moment Gabriel changed/replaced the keys.

The Church had paid N150,000 for renovations which was handed over to Gabriel to supervise the work. The pastor openly said he was aggrieved by the refusal of the Church to allow him to keep, disburse and manage the money as the resident pastor.

Above are just some of the facts of the case.

Right now, there are nefarious efforts to shield the suspect. The mother of the said suspect is an Inspector in the Nigeria Police Force.

Living Faith Church is standing by their “pastor”.

We demand justice for Gabriel.

#JusticeForGabriel

See more photos:

The suspect

Blood stains on the chairs

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