A team of journalists visited a scene of terror in Umukoroada village
of Okpuala Umugwor Autonomous community in Osisioma Ngwa local
government area of Abia State where one Kenneth Nwanguma Agu (32),
butchered his sister, Esther Akudo Agu (28) to pieces with a cutlass.
Like
a scene out of a horror movie, Kenneth also attempted to bury alive his
brother, Kingsley Ngozi Agu (30) along with the brother's friend,
Ezekiel Chikwado Ajuga from Enugu state, in the bush.
The three
siblings are children of one late Mr. Sunday Nwanguma Agu while their
mother, Mrs. Ekemma Elizabeth Agu – née Okeke – is from Neni in Anaocha
local government area of Anambra state.
Luck, however smiled on
Kingsley and his friend as villagers who noticed their presence on the
ground in the said bush rescued them while they were still breathing.
It was gathered that they were tied with rope and loaded in a wheel
barrow down the bush and buried.
According to the siblings'
maternal uncle, who led journalists to the scene, trouble started late
last year when their father who was a trader dealing on timber at Aba
died.
He said that shortly after Agu's demise, Kenneth started
laying claim to the family house, a four-bedroom bungalow situated in
the village. He said that attempt made by Kingsley to secure one room in
the house failed and effort made by their mother and Esther to
convince Kenneth to release the room also failed.
The uncle
recalled that Kingsley had a misfortune concerning his business in Abuja
shortly after the father died and had to relocate to the village where
he needed a room in the house but Kenneth refused.
He said, an
angry Kenneth must have ambushed Esther with a very sharp cutlass and
butchered her to death on the midnight of 31st December last year.
Kenneth
had earlier swooped on Kingsley and his friend, Ezekiel, tied them with
rope and used a wheel barrow to push them down the bush in the village
and buried them alive.It took the vigilance of villagers who passed by
the bush on their way to fetch firewood to rescue Kingsley and
Ezekiel.According to their uncle, Kenneth left the wheel barrow at the
scene and did not cover the emergency grave where he laid Kingsley and
his friend well enough.On seeing the wheel barrow, the villagers felt
that it is not normal for anybody to abandon such in the bush and on
getting closer, they noticed some movements in the grave.The lucky duo
were however rescued and rushed to a nearby hospital where they were
treated. Kingsley has been discharged from hospital.
Ezekiel
sustained injury on the neck. Asked by journalists what Kenneth was
doing for a living and how he managed to tie down Kingsley and Ezekiel
with rope and drove them to the bush in a wheel barrow, the man said he
was a commercial motor cyclist in Makurdi, Benue State for sometime
before then, and that he suspected diabolical means were used by the
assailant and his alleged accomplice, one Clement Nsogala, to achieve
their cruel aim.
He recalled that when he got the information on what
was going on, he rushed down to Umuokoroada from Onitsha and met few
villagers on the scene and took picture without anybody making attempt
to arrest him or even report to the Police.
"To me, the whole
thing is like a mystery. How did they allow him to escape? My sister who
is their mother is bed-ridden and could not make effort to defend her
daughter but what about the neighbours? I think he applied diabolical
means to blindfold everybody and did all he wanted to do," he recounted.
With
the assailant on the run, he said that the villagers arrested his
friend, Nsogala and asked him to produce Kenneth but Nsogala who is an
Okada rider in the village did not give any clue of Kenneth's
whereabouts and the villagers allowed him to go adding that the remains
of Esther was buried after two days.
Asked
if they reported the matter to the Police, the man who insisted that he
did not want his name in print for fear of being attacked by Kenneth
and his cohorts said he reported the matter to a nearby Police post but
could not follow it up because he was too busy working to save the
lives of Kingsley and the mother.
"I took pictures and went to
report the matter to a nearby Police post, but I could not follow it up
because my aunty and Kingsley were in coma all the while. Besides, the
cost of coming from Onitsha to this place was too cumbersome to me, so
please use your power to tell the Police to look for Kenneth and arrest
him and procecute him," he added.He said that all efforts made to get
Kenneth's picture failed but the picture of his friend, Clement Nsogala
is available.