Police Recover Body Of Missing 43-Year-Old Real Estate Mogul In Bayelsa
THECONSCIENCE NG reports that the Operatives of the Rapid Response Unit of the Bayelsa State Police Command on Saturday evening recovered the corpse of missing real estate operator, Ekpeboh Richard, after days he was declared missing by his family.
His decomposing body was recovered from the forest between New NDDC Road and Otuokpoti in Ogbia Local Government Area of the state.
Police discovered the deceased was shot in the head in an execution-style and dumped in the bush.
A graduate of the Niger Delta University, Ekpeboh is the Vice Chairman of the Real Estate Consultants Association of Bayelsa and hails from Amassoma in the Southern Ijaw Local Government Area of the state. He is married with two kids.
He left home on July 24, 2025, and his wife became worried at around 2 a.m. when he failed to return home.
According to family sources, all calls by the worried wife to his mobile phone were left unanswered until three days later via WhatsApp chat, when he purportedly asked her not to mount unnecessary pressure on him and that he was okay.
Further prompted by the wife that she would reach out to the extended family to ask him why he abandoned the house was met by a promise to send money via POS, where the sum of N15,300 was purportedly sent to a POS agent and not her account.
The family source also revealed that he owes two persons the sums of N9 million and N3 million, respectively, within the association.
However, it was later discovered that those who abducted and killed him were the ones using his phone to chat with his worried wife.
According to some friends and colleagues of the deceased, they later reported the matter to the police and the men of the Rapid Response Squad (RRS), headed by CSP Bishop Elemide.
The RRS operatives, working on intelligence, youths, and an eyewitness, discovered that two young men in a blue-coloured Honda V-Boot car had dragged the deceased out and took him deep into the forest. “What we heard later were two gunshots. And the two young men scampered to their car and left.
“They also left with the deceased’s car, a Toyota Matrix.”
Police investigators discovered that there was a struggle between the deceased and his killers, with footwear discovered a few metres from where the body was discovered.
“We, the youths, assisted in recovering the body. The place he was dumped was a swamp. His head was blown off by gunshot,” one of the youths revealed.
Our correspondent gathered from sources at the Police Headquarters that the Homicide Department of the State Criminal Investigation Department have taken over the case and is already working on two leads.
“We are looking at the fact that it may be a case of business deals gone wrong with members of his Association of Real Estate Consultants, or that he may be involved in a cybercrime or money laundering deal that went wrong.”
“We will get to the root of the matter and bring the culprits to book,” a police source stated.
A senior police officer, who confirmed the development, told our correspondent that the Commissioner of Police, Francis Idu, is fully aware of the development.
