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 lead The AUTHORITY on Sunday to the scene but did not want his name in print, 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 but attempt to speak with him failed as at the time of filing this report as his phone line was not going through.
Ezekiel sustained injury on the neck. Asked 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,” the 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. Effort made to speak with the mother also failed as her phone line was not going through.
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 AUTHORITY Newspapers 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.
When the AUTHORITY on Sunday contacted the Police Public Relations Officer of Abia State Police Command, DSP Onyeke, he said that the command has made contact with Osisioma Ngwa Divisional Police Officer to get details of the incident.
