Edith CHUKU
74 years old Mr Egesi Lazarus Ifeanyi, has been detained by the State Criminal Investigation and Intelligence Department SCIID, Port Harcourt, over the death of his neighbour who is a lawyer.
The deceased whose name was given simply as Barr Anselem was found dead in his apartment at Circular Road, Iriebe Housing Estate, in Rivers State, on December 21, 2025.
According to report, Ifeanyi was detained on Monday when he went to honour invitation by SCIID, concerning the death of the lawyer.
Dismayed by his detention, son of the 74 year old man, Egesi Kelechi Bright, spoke with newsmen and declared his father innocent of every allegation connected to the neighbour’s demise.
Egesi affirmed that his dad and the deceased were very good friends, living adjacent to each other in the estate.
He narrated that, “on December 14, 2025 at about 7am, barrister Anselem called my dad, when my dad was outside to come. They sat at front of barrister Anselem corridor. He gave my dad a sachet of Chelsea, my dad drank and barrister Anselem took his own sachet of Chelsea and drank.
“My dad drank and went back to the house to prepare for church. Normally, whenever we turn on our generator, barrister Anselem comes to our house to charge his phone, he and my dad are close friends.
“Barrister Anselem is aged 55. He has nobody living with him. The only friend he has is my dad. On that fateful day, when my dad put on the generator, he called barrister Anselem, he was not taking his call. The next day, my dad called him, he was not picking his call. My dad called him for three to four days, he was not picking his calls. Later on, the phone went off.
“My dad was worried that barrister Anselem was not picking his calls so my dad went to a woman in the Estate who used to call barrister Anselem his brother and asked if she knows any one who is related to him, the woman said she knows one of his brother, so my dad told the woman that Anselem has not been picking calls for days and his phone later went off. My dad told the woman to give barrister Anselem’s brother his number to call him, which the woman did.
“So barrister Anselem’s brother called my dad. My Dad explained everything to him and asked him to come over. So when they came, on Sunday, December 21, 2025, my dad pointed the house to them that this is your uncle’s house. When they came, Anselem’s sister went at the back of his house and noticed the back door was open. She did not go in, she came back to call my dad and some of the estate people who came together with them to check.
“They all entered the house and saw him lying down dead on the floor of the room, so everybody came out and said they should go and report to the Police.”
He noted that the estate chairman was immediately notified and that they went to Oyigbo Police Division where his father and the estate chairman’s statements were taken.
“After the statement, they released my dad and the estate chairman. The matter was transferred to State CIID and they invited my father with the estate chairman. The estate chairman was there last week and left, so my dad came back from the village yesterday(Sunday) because of the invitation.
“After my dad wrote his statement at SCIID, PH he was detained, not knowing that Anselem’s sister has been in SCIID and wrote a statement raising many allegations against my dad.”
Egesi further called for thorough investigation into the matter by the state commissioner of Police, insisting that his dad was innocent.
Meanwhile, 74 year old Ifeanyi was still in detention as at Tuesday morning. The state Police Public Relations Officer, Grace Irinke-Koko, is yet to speak on the incident.
