The Nigerian Police Force in Port Harcourt Rivers State on wednesday arrested a murder suspect early after a failed bid to strangle yet another woman.
Police spokesman Nnamdi Omoni said the victim suddenly woke up from her sleep in a hotel room, to find the man trying to kill her. They had shared the hotel room together for the night.
“The victim, a young woman escaped because she was able to raise the alarm at about 2am. She was sleeping when she suddenly woke up and saw the man who brought her to the hotel charging at her,” Omoni told Bukola Adebayo and Friday Davies of the CNN.
“She was almost dying when the man tried to strangle her,” he added.
The arrest made on the attempted murderer, has so far increased the number of arrest to three in Port Harcourt in connection with the serial killings of women, all prostitutes.
Hundreds of women marched yesterday to protest the killings, saying that all lives matter, including those of the prostitutes.
Eight women have been murdered since August, police commissioner Mustapha Dandaura said at a press briefing with newsmen on Tuesday.
The eight women were found murdered in different hotel rooms, often strangled with a piece of white clothing tied either around their neck or waist, Dandaura said.
The killings in Port Harcourt bore all the hallmarks of “cultism,” he said.
“The same modus operandi is used by the killers. They drug the ladies before strangling them to death. They use a white cloth to tie either on their neck or their waist.
“There is an element of cultism,” Dandaura said.
Mr. Dandaura added that all the women’s body parts were found intact.
The police commissioner said a man has confessed to one of the murders and is cooperating with detectives investigating the murders.
Another man was arrested Monday night after a woman alerted officers that the suspect tried to lure her to a hotel room against her will, police said.
“He has also confessed and given useful clues in our investigation,” Dandaura said.