In what can only be described as one of the most cold-blooded crimes to shake Rivers State, a seemingly ordinary delivery job turned into a nightmare that ended with a young father brutally murdered and hidden like garbage in a soakaway pit — right inside his killer’s father’s compound.
The victim was Chukwuma Eleje, a 38-year-old dispatch rider with Jumia. On Saturday, March 25, 2017, Chukwuma left home like any other working day. He kissed his wife, Blessing, goodbye and promised his four children he would be back soon. Little did he know it would be the last time they saw him alive.
Chukwuma had been assigned to deliver expensive smartphones — including high-end iPhones — to a customer in the Ada-George area of Port Harcourt. The address he was given led him straight to the house of one Sodienye Mbatumukeke.
According to the chilling narration making rounds in a detailed Facebook video that has left many Nigerians in shock, Chukwuma arrived at the compound with the goods. Instead of paying, the customer had other plans. Without warning, Sodienye attacked the unsuspecting rider on the head with a pestle. As Chukwuma staggered, his attacker quickly covered his head with a plastic bag, suffocating him while he struggled for air. Not done yet, he tied him up with a cable wire to make sure he never got up again.
Once the deed was done, the body was dragged and buried in a shallow grave inside a soakaway pit within the same compound — his own father’s house.
For days, Chukwuma’s family searched frantically. His phone was switched off. No one had heard from him. The police eventually picked up a trail and arrested three suspects: the main culprit Sodienye Mbatumukeke, Dina Bari-Abii, and Joy Lucky.
During interrogation at the Rivers State Police Command, the suspects were separated. For days, they all maintained their innocence, insisting they knew nothing about the missing dispatch rider. But after about a week, the pressure got to one of them. The investigator cleverly worked on the weakest link, and the confession finally came pouring out.
The lead suspect, Sodienye Mbatumukeke, broke down and led detectives straight to his father’s house in Ada-George. There, in the presence of stunned officers and family members, they dug up the soakaway pit and recovered Chukwuma’s decomposing body — exactly where it had been dumped to hide the crime.
The motive? Pure greed. The suspects allegedly wanted to keep the expensive phones without paying a kobo. They chose murder over simply refusing the delivery.
The case dragged through the Rivers State High Court in Port Harcourt for four long years. On February 15, 2021, Justice Chigozie Igwe delivered judgment. Sodienye Mbatumukeke was found guilty of murder and conspiracy. He was sentenced to death by hanging.
Many who have watched the video are still in disbelief. “How can a human being do this to another person just because of phones?” one commenter wrote. Others are calling for the family to be properly compensated and for stricter protection for dispatch riders who risk their lives every single day delivering goods to strangers.
Chukwuma Eleje left behind a grieving widow and four children who will never get to grow up with their father. His story is a painful reminder that in this hustle, not every customer you meet has good intentions.
May his soul continue to rest in peace.