Nelson A.Osuala [ 7 November 2016]
The Sad and gruesome murder of the Village head of Ekpri Ikot Ene community in Akpabuyo Local Government Area of Cross River State, cannot be forgotten in a hurry.
Such disaster is of a Son killing an Ordained Chief has never happened right from antiquity as this incident is a taboo and a slap to the gods of the land.
Even the elders and Community leaders have argued that a mysterious force must be responsible, not just to have provoked the incidence but also have possessed the Murderer.
According to our source, the Wife of the late Chief, Mrs. Affiong Offiong Asuquo narrates the tragic incidence, thus:
“The problem started when my husband’s money started missing and he had always thought that it was his first son, who was responsible for the theft, not knowing that he was not the person involved, and he had always denied being the one.
The height was when he sold his oil and kept N90,000 in a Nido milk can and the money got missing again, he was really angry because he could not fathom why such an amount of money could get missing in his house.”
She however argued that, the money was actually stolen by their daughter, who after the act, disappeared to her boyfriend’s place and returned only after they both had exhausted the cash, and pretended as though she knew nothing while she watches late village head rail accusations and curses on his epileptic son.
She also confessed that.. Occasionally, the embittered boy had always said that, One day, he would deliberately steal from his father since he had always accused him falsely of making out with his ( the monarch's) money.
She added in the same vein, that sometimes frustration leads the 23 year old son to argue that one day, He would slaughter His father and throw him inside the toilet for always accusing him wrongly.
Continuing, she adds:
"All these came to pass that night as the father started shouting at him to provide the money he took from his room, the boy got angry and picked up a cutlass and pursued his father as I tried to intervene, he almost cut me,”.
She further explained: “I had to call for help, I went out to call people, including the youth leader because it was a bit late at night, before I came back with the people in a matter of minutes, the deed had already been done, he had already killed his father and dumped him inside the pit toilet behind the house.”
“When I came back with the people I went to seek help from, they asked him where his father was, he replied that he does not know, so they started searching for him, then they saw a blood trail, which they followed right to the pit toilet and saw that he has butchered the monarch with a little flesh just holding his head to his neck, pushed off the mud which covered part of the toilet so that the opening could allow the lifeless body into the toilet.”
Speaking further, she told NDV that they apprehended him and handed him over to the Police and her husband embalmed in the house.
Commenting to the sad incidence, one of the community leader,who begged anonymity, told our correspondence that no village head had ever died under such circumstance before : “It is really unfortunate that this happened like this.”
“We are all surprised about what happened, but we have gone to the palace to inform our clan head that he has become indisposed because in our tradition, until the rite of passage is carried out, it can never be announced that he has joined his ancestors no matter the circumstance.”
Another side to the story as alluded by one of the elders has it that, there were some forces that did not like Ekpo’s emergence as the village head.
He disclosed that there had been a secret battle against the Chief to oust him out from the throne through diabolical means, For him, “This (unfortunate incident) is a traditional coup resulting from that war to dethrone him.
Recasting the past, the elder informs that 'HRH Ene, Village Head of Ekpri Ikot Ene', became
the village head last two years, and that the people did not know how else to get to him except his children.
"..the boy who committed this sacrilege is just a little above 20, he is also sick; he is epileptic and has never hurt a fly."
As at press time, the killer- Son and suspect ( Francis Ekpo Jnr) is now cooling his heels at the Divisional Police headquarters, Akpabuyo, awaiting the transfer of the case to State Headquarters.
Source: Punch
Nelson A.Osuala
Is a Blogger & the Associate Editor of Negroidhaven.org
(Negroidhaven)
