✕ CLOSE Online Special City News Entrepreneurship Environment Factcheck Everything Woman Home Front Islamic Forum Life Xtra Property Travel & Leisure Viewpoint Vox Pop Women In Business Art and Ideas Bookshelf Labour Law Letters
Click Here To Listen To Trust Radio Live

Five arrested for murder of widower in Imo

Five people are in the custody of the Imo State Police Command for allegedly killing a man who lost his wife in a car accident barely a month before.

The incident happened in Umuduruchukwu Aboh Isu in Nwangele Local Government Area of Imo State on Monday, October 11.

I’m aware PDP has caused Nigerians some pains – Banky W

SPONSOR AD

Though Ganduje sacked me, I can’t backstab him – Yakasai

The incident has thrown the community into deep mourning.

Our correspondent gathered that the 47-year-old victim, Apostle Wisdom Mbakwe, who hailed from Umuduruchukwu Aboh, Isu in Nwangele Local Government Area of the state, was said to be making the burial arrangements for his wife, a Liberian nationale, before he was brutally murdered. Kate was killed in a motor accident on September 11, while going to a market.

It was gathered that the deceased and his wife had temporarily relocated from Conakry, Guinea, before their untimely death.

The deceased’s sister, Mrs Chinyere Ajonu, who spoke to our correspondent, said, “I gathered from a boy, Chidiebere, that the incident happened at about 6.15 am on Monday. Chidiebere had opened the door to sweep the compound. He first opened the back door to take the broom and parker, then left it slightly open while he went out through the front door to sweep the compound oblivious to what was happening inside the house.

“Meanwhile our brother was observing his morning prayer according to the Jewish religion he professes. Just then, Chidiebere said he heard the shout of ‘Yahweh, Yahweh’, and rushed into the house just in time to see the deceased struggling with some men.

“According to him, one of them tried to use a machete on his head, but he dodged and it landed on his shoulders. He ran out to alert some neighbours and the youth of the area. When they came, they did not see my brother or the assailants. So they started combing the bush, thinking that if they were kidnappers, they wouldn’t have gone far.

“But they combed everywhere without seeing anyone. When they eventually returned to the house, they observed blood all over the sitting room and saw my brother where the killers had pushed his body in between some chairs and covered him up with curtains.

“On investigation, it was observed that the killers had apparently laid siege throughout the night by taking cover in a nearby uncompleted building. It was when they saw that the boy had opened the back door that they entered the compound through the window of the toilet in their father’s old house.”

On how the assailants were arrested, she said, “While the crowd gathered in our compound, a motorcycle rider came and told us that he dropped three boys at a point in a nearby community and from their looks and behaviour, he suspected them.

“He told us that the three boys were dishevelled, with one naked and the shoeless. He said that as he was taking them through the scene of the incident, they asked him to speed up and that was why when he saw the crowd, he suspected that the boys must have committed a crime there.

“So all the youth gathered and he took them to the spot he dropped them and they were promptly arrested.”

The deceased’s sister noted that the family is at a loss because their brother was making arrangements for the burial of his wife.

“We are befuddled because his wife was killed in a motor accident on 11th September while she was going to Nkwo Nmiri market with our mother and he was killed on 11th October, a month after, also on the same market day.

“The killers took his phones and that of his wife and we don’t know how to contact his in-laws in Liberia. We want the police to do a thorough investigation because we suspect a clear case of assassination,” she added.

Police Public Relations Officer, CSP Mike Abattam, said the Police have launched an investigation to unravel the circumstances surrounding the incident.

Join Daily Trust WhatsApp Community For Quick Access To News and Happenings Around You.