Horror: How guests are murdered in Century Hotel in Delta state

Century Hotel

Across Nigeria, chilling stories have emerged of hotel guests who checked into rooms, only to disappear without a trace—or worse, to be found mutilated.

In the shadows of these horrific incidents, disturbing accounts suggest that hotel employees, driven by greed, coercion, or even direct complicity, play vital roles in aiding the murderers, either by unwittingly or intentionally facilitating such grisly crimes. VICTOR AYENI writes on the incident of Century Hotel, Delta State

The morning of March 21 began like any other when Pastor Sunday Ogofotha bade goodbye to his family and set out from his house in Lagos to his home state, Delta State.

A native of the Owhelogbo community in the Isoko North Local Government Area of the state, he had planned to attend his brother’s burial, which was scheduled to take place in the village the next day.

On arriving in Otowe late that day, the cleric lodged at Century Home Hotel in the Owhelogbo community and settled in for an evening of tranquility, hoping to wake up the next day to attend the burial event.

The next day, as the Ogofotha family gathered for the burial service, Sunday was nowhere to be seen, and his phones were switched off.

By the second day, apprehension had crept in, and the family began to frantically call one another to inquire about the cleric’s whereabouts.

Fortunately, on Friday evening, Sunday had informed his wife of the name of the hotel where he was lodging and his room number — a piece of information that ultimately exposed the evil minds that orchestrated the cleric’s murder.

Some worried family members reportedly called Mrs Rhoda Ogofotha to ask if her husband had returned to Lagos. But their hearts sank when she informed them that he had not yet returned from the trip.

Her efforts to reach Sunday on the phone proved abortive, as his phones had been switched off since Friday evening — an unusual practice that raised some suspicion.

Saturday PUNCH gathered that Rhoda called her in-laws and informed them of what her husband had told her before they lost communication.

With this information, the family members went to Century Home Hotel to ask about Sunday’s whereabouts, but the hotel manager, Godwin Iboirode, claimed that he had checked out.

This prompted the family to leave the hotel in disappointment. However, they returned there again, this time with firm conviction that someone was hiding something.

Our correspondent gathered that when the Ogofotha family members re-visited the hotel, a heated argument erupted when they insisted on searching all the rooms — a suggestion which the hotel management allegedly tried to resist.

By this time, the case had attracted the intervention of the community vigilance group, which forcefully broke the door of a particular room and entered it to find a gory sight: Sunday’s dead body tied to the bed with multiple stab wounds.

When the case was reported to the Delta State Police Command, the hotel owner, Joseph Ogbole; the hotel manager, Iboirode; the security guard; and two other staff members were arrested.

An investigation revealed that Sunday had been murdered on Friday night, and his killers, alleged to be hotel staff, also took his ATM cards and withdrew money from his bank account the next day.

A source in the community alleged that the hotel had been a haven for suspected kidnappers and murderers.

“Pastor Sunday is not the only victim of their murder. Sometime last year, there was a story of a POS girl named Bethel who was said to have been killed in that hotel, too. Only God knows how many other people have innocently lodged there and fallen victim to them,” the source told Saturday PUNCH.

In a video footage posted by Tony Talks Crime, a woman believed to be the wife of the security guard confessed that her husband had murdered the POS lady and buried her on the hotel premises.

According to her, her husband allegedly killed the lady because she accused him of using a fake alert to withdraw N10,000 from her account. Bethel was said to have recovered her money, but the man vowed to kill her in retaliation.

“My husband called her into the hotel; she is a friend of his. That day, he called her on the phone and took her into a room. It was around 7 pm one evening. I don’t know how he killed her because I was in our room. It was when he came out around midnight that he told me he had killed her,” she said.

In his confession, Iboirode, in a video posted on X by the Delta State Police Public Relations Officer, Bright Edafe, on March 29, claimed that after Sunday lodged at the hotel on March 21, he was approached by two young men who wanted to see the cleric.

“One of them was dark-skinned, and the other was fair-skinned. They told me they wanted to take something from him (Sunday), and I said ‘okay.’ Later, the guys told me that when they collect the thing from the man, they would give me N5m.

“The dark-skinned guy, named Johnson, later came out of the room, but I didn’t see the fair-skinned one, named Clement, come out. After an hour had passed, I went to check the room. When I got to that particular room, I found out that the door had been locked with a padlock. Clement had left through the exit door inside the room that people could use to leave the building.

“Later, in the evening, I began to perceive some odour from the locked door. I knew the man inside was dead, and I was afraid. I decided to escape. I ran to a woman’s house to spend the night, and when it was morning, I came out to find out how the issue was. That was when the vigilantes and community boys attacked me,” he said.

It was gathered that the hotel was owned by Iboirode’s uncle, Oghole, who claimed to be unaware of his nephew’s criminal activities.

Oghole was said to have recruited Iboirode to help manage the hotel, but he was implicated by the community for complicity in Sunday’s murder, which ultimately led to the hotel being razed by angry residents.

Iboirode further disclosed, “I encountered Johnson and Clement before, around December last year, and they gave me N300,000. That time, they brought one girl to the hotel, but since that time, I have not seen the girl,” he added.

According to the police, a POS machine belonging to the girl believed to be Bethel was found in Iboirode’s house during a search initiated by detectives.

“Johnson was the one who handed over the POS machine to me. I don’t know whether it was the guy or the girl who owned the POS machine. But I can confirm that Sunday was murdered in his room by Clement and Johnson,” he added.

Edafe noted that the two suspects and the manager of the hotel have been apprehended, but they are still “investigating to unravel what eventually happened because, to the best of our knowledge, they have not given us the full details.”

The PPRO confirmed that Ogofotha was stabbed “multiple times until he died,” but “he was able to reach out to his wife to tell her where he was before they no longer heard from him. This is why information is vital; telling your loved ones where you are is key.”