Horror in Anambra Community: Vigilante is Butchered on Duty as Family, Residents Accuse Couple (Photo)
Controversy has trailed a couple after a member of a community vigilante in Anambra state, was butchered on duty in cold blood.
Community vigilante butchered on duty
Mrs. Cordelia Umeh, a native of Umuinem village, Umuonyiuka, in
Ufuma, Orumba South Local Government Area of Anambra State is
distraught. She cannot be consoled because her eldest son, Chuks Umeh,
was recently murdered in cold blood a few strides from their home.
The deceased, 30, was a member of the community’s vigilance group.
On the night he was murdered, he had allegedly rung the village bell at
about 10pm, signalling the commencement of duty; but unknown to him
death was lurking at the corner.
Before his tragic death, his kinsman, Ezechukwu Okechukwu, had
allegedly threatened on different occasions to deal with him over a
series of issues. Some of their kinsmen, including the chairman of their
vigilance group, Andy Nwankwo Eze, corroborated the allegation.
The accused, Ezechukwu Okechukwu, has, however, dismissed every
allegation against him as false. Ezechukwu, who visited The Sun office
in Awka, maintained that he was innocent of the crime. He, however,
alleged that one Chibuike Akamnonu, had confessed to the police of
committing the crime.
The Anambra State Police Command, which has been accused of
complicities in the murder incident now generating serious tension in
the community declined to speak on the matter when our reporter called
him. The Police Commissioner, Sam Okaula, told a reporter that he would
not comment on the matter.
The deceased’s mother, Mrs. Umeh, a widow, and other members of the
family told Daily Sun that the accused, Okechukwu, and his wife,
Ifeyinwa, a police sergeant, had some questions to answer over Chuks’
death.
“On October 2, 2016, Chuks had gone to the village square to charge his electric torch but he never returned alive,” the deceased’s mother began.
“Owners of the house where he went to recharge his torch
empathetically said that he collected the torch a few minutes past 10pm
that night. Afterwards he proceeded to ring the security bell, as he was
the one in charge of it.
“While he was out for security duty, some people swooped on
him on the lonely route, leading to the village square. People are
testifying that they saw two dreadful persons come into the village that
night.
“From what we saw in the morning, Chuks was strangled to death
behind a house whose owners live abroad. They later deposited his body
on the road, wore him his foot wear and put his security torchlight in
his hand. They later inflicted deep cuts in the head with axe and
scooped out his brain.”
Recalling how both families got at the crossroads, she said that
they had been enmeshed in bitter quarrel before the incident happened
over a missing fowl. Okechukwu, she said, had accused the deceased of
stealing his broiler, an allegation she dismissed.
“One day, he locked up all the members of the community’s
vigilance group. But the community bailed them all. We were at Eke
square when they returned and everybody clearly heard Okechukwu and his
wife, saying that they had been spiritually targeting Chuks but he could
not get him.
“He personally tried using the police to intimidate him but
could not succeed. He said that the next step was to spill blood. They
said that many families would cry soon. The villagers replied him
immediately, urging him to get ready to buy a shovel and a hoe with
which he would use to bury his victims.
“Each time he saw Chuks, he would be pointing at him,
threatening that he should get ready for him. Now that he has been
killed, the villagers have gone to Okechukwu’s house to ask him what had
transpired. Okechukwu replied that maybe the deity he had commissioned
to kill his enemies had begun working, starting with Chuks.
“Puzzled, our people asked him whether idols had cutlasses,
axes and arrows. He said he did not know – that maybe Chuks was killed
by hired assassins.”
It was learned that Eze’s wife, Ifeyinwa, a police woman, was
alleged to have been boasting that nothing would happen. She was also
accused of blocking police men, who were supposed to investigate the
matter. “They have a close relationship with a top police officer attached to Ajalli Police Station."
The deceased’s sibling, Ekpereamaka, said that Okechukwu had in the
past told him to warn his brother to stop collaborating with the
villagers against him otherwise he would deal decisively with him. He
also accused the Deputy Commissioner of Police in-charge of the case of
being partial.
“When the community’s vigilance group chairman narrated to him
how Eze and his wife had been threatening Chuks, the DCP ordered for his
detention.
“Before the community constituted the members of the vigilance
group, it was noticed that Okechukwu and his wife usually visited the
market square to perform some incantations, usually naked. To stop that,
the vigilance group was constituted. He was not comfortable with that
and vowed to stop the security. He said that once he killed my brother,
who was their main man others would be easier to deal with.”
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