Claims that their daughter was killed and her organs taken have been denied by the family of the late Miss Iniubong Umoren, who affirmed that her organs were intact after an autopsy was conducted.
The answer addresses the accusation of organ harvesting made by Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan of representing Kogi Central in an audio/video conversation with media personality and activist Dr Sandra Duru, who is based in the United States. In the discussion, she accused Senate President Godswill Akpabio of collecting organs.
The continued hostility, which also involves Akpoti-Uduaghan’s claims of sexual harassment against Akpabio, is further complicated by this fresh accusation.
In the voice recording that was circulated on social media, Akpoti-Uduaghan asserted that Akpabio supposedly saved his sick wife, Ekaette, by using Umoren’s organs.
On April 29, 2021, a man named UduakAbasi Akpan deceived and killed 26-year-old Iniubong Umoren, a philosophy graduate from the University of Uyo, at his father’s home in Akwa Ibom State’s Uruan Local Government Area, claiming to be offering her a job.
Akpan was found guilty of rape and murder after being brought before the Akwa Ibom State High Court in Uyo on charge number HU/87C/2021. On August 4, 2022, he was given a hanging death sentence.
Ifiok Umoren, the deceased’s sister, expressed shock at the claims during a news conference in Uyo on Saturday. She insisted that no portion of her late sister was missing between the autopsy and the burial.
She asked, “How can someone tell me and indeed the world that my sister’s organs were harvested? Did the person who accused another harvest my sister’s organs after burial?”
Recalling the incident, the elder Umoren said her sister had called her that fateful morning that she was going for a job interview, but when she (the deceased) failed to return home, she conducted a search and eventually discovered that she had been killed.
“On May 1, 2021, the police called and asked me to send my sister’s pictures to them. On May 2, 2021, the police asked me to come to the mortuary for the identification of my sister. On arrival, I saw her corpse and confirmed that she was the one.
“Before burial, the police took the corpse to the University of Uyo Teaching Hospital, Uyo, for autopsy. Two policemen and I were in the room and witnessed the autopsy. All organs in her body were complete. On May 18, 2021, she was buried.
Throughout the arrest, prosecution and conviction of the murderer, UduakAbasi never mentioned Akpabio. How can a senator who was not a witness accuse Akpabio of being the person who harvested the organs of my sister?
“I keep wondering how someone would wake up one day and start launching unsubstantiated allegations for whatever reasons best known to her against another and then tie it down to the death of my sister,” Umoren added.
The state Director of Public Prosecution, Mr Friday Itim, who was a prosecuting counsel in the murder case, said UduakAbasi single-handedly killed Iniubong by hitting her head with a stabiliser over her refusal to allow him to have raw sex.
“The murderer who preyed on Iniubong to offer a job later demanded to have raw sex with her, though she wanted him to use a condom.
“The incident led to a struggle and argument and a subsequent assault in which UduakAbasi hit her head and abdomen with a stabiliser, and she died.
“After killing her, the murderer dragged her alone into a shallow grave he dug, buried her and used leaves to cover the grave.
“Before she died, she had called and informed her sister of her whereabouts and the interviewer’s phone number in case of any happening.
“The murderer who fled to Calabar was tricked into returning home on the pretext that his aged father, a retired Federal Government staffer, was eventually arrested,” he said.
Itim said upon his return, the former chairman of Uruan Local Government, who is their relation, summoned UduakAbasi and found out from him that he had killed the girl.
“The chairman had no other option but to surrender the murderer to the Divisional Police Officer in the area for arrest, investigation, detention and arraignment in court.
“The prosecution called 10 witnesses. In the end, UduakAbasi was convicted. It is, therefore, outrageous and a lie for anybody to conclude that Senator Akpabio had a hand in the murder in the state, let alone harvesting her organs.
“I want to call on appropriate authorities in the country to prosecute Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan for raising false alarms and information,” he said.
