Hafis Ringim, Police IG
By Christopher Isiguzo in Enugu and Muhammad Bello in Port Harcourt
Thick dark cloud pervaded the sleepy community of Achara-Unuhu in Abakaliki Local Government area of Ebonyi State Monday following the death of a nursing mother with three of her children in a strange fire outbreak that gutted their residence while they were asleep.
The incident, which the deceased’s co-wife is said to be a suspect, also consumed all domestic animals within the compound.
Only the victim, Mrs. Chinyere Ogbonna Nwaokpuru, and her suckling baby were said to have died instantly in the inferno, while her two other kids who were rushed to the hospital following serious injuries they sustained, died shortly after.
But for the timely intervention of security personnel, the unfortunate development nearly culminated in a communal feud between Izzi and Ezza people, as the victim was said to be from a neighbouring Ezza but married as second wife to an Achara-Unuhu man of Izzi clan.
The state Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), Mr John Eluu, an assistant superintendent of police (ASP), confirmed the incident and said the command would ensure that whoever that is responsible for the incident is apprehended and made to face the full weight of the law.
THISDAY checks revealed that the victim and her three kids had gone to bed, hale and hearty the previous night after taking their meal, but an unknown person sneaked into her room at about 4:00am and set them ablaze.
The yet-to-be identified arsonist was said to have bathed the victims and their house with fuel before setting the building on fire. This made it impossible for the deceased and her children to exit their apartment when the fire was raging.
The husband of the two women was said to be residing in Anambra State, but his mother living in a building next to the house where the victims were burnt, told newsmen that she heard her late daughter-in-law shout: “Jesus.”
She said this made her to wake up and when she did, she saw that the door to the house was already covered in smoke.
“I was in my room in the night when I heard someone shouting Jesus; I quickly rushed out to see what was happening though before then smoke has engulfed the whole place but I managed to see someone running out from the room where the deceased were lying but the person was a woman,” she said.
Sources said there had been no love lost between the two wives apparently because of the inability of the senior wife, Ijeoma, to have children.
Ijeoma was said to have opposed her husband when he was planning to bring in Chinyere as second wife. She could not be reached as at the time of filing this report.
It was further gathered that she had been threatening to deal with the husband for taking a second wife in spite of her opposition to the plan.
Nwaokpuru and the first wife are indigenes of Izzi, whereas the deceased came from Ezza and for the past three years since she got married to the family, she had witnessed no peace until her untimely death.
Insider sources further disclosed that it was only three weeks ago that the traditional marriage rites were performed on the deceased even as the husband was yet to do same for the first wife.
The mother-in-law told reporters that the first wife started behaving strangely after the traditional rites on the second wife and started sleeping outside the compound only to return every morning.
When the police, SSS, civil defence and other related security agents in the state invaded the place and made an attempt to carry away the deceased and the infant baby, they were resisted by an angry mob from Ezza community who overpowered them and started setting ablaze all the houses in the compound and even threatened to kill some of the journalists who attempted taking the photograph of the scene.
Reacting to the incident, the Coordinator of Abakaliki Development Centre, Mrs. Franca Okpo, said she was still asleep when one of her aides called to alert her of the tragedy.
Okpo added that she immediately arrived the scene to see both members of Ezza and Izzi communities milling over the place and had to alert the Divisional Police Officer in charge of Izzi divisional police command who sent his men to avert skirmishes.
In a related development, the Borno State Police Command has confirmed four persons were killed on Sunday by suspected Boko Haram militants at a drinking joint in Bulumkutu, Maiduguri.
The command’s Public Relations Officer, Malam Lawal Abdullahi, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Maiduguri yesterday that the suspected militants invaded the joint while the victims were drinking.
“They raided the joint and shot the victims who were busy drinking.
“All the victims died even after some were rushed to the University of Maiduguri Teaching Hospital (UMTH) for help,'' Abdullahi said.
He added that the militants successfully carried out the attack because it was not properly secured by the owner.
“The area is purely residential and the owner illegally converted the place to a beer parlour without properly registering the place.
“If the place had been properly registered, there would have been the presence of security agents to safeguard it, especially in the face of the security challenges facing the state,'' Abdullahi said.
NAN reports that the attack came a few hours after the militants gave the Borno State government conditions to be met before any dialogue could take place.
Part of the conditions, which were contained in a letter released to newsmen in Maiduguri, included an unconditional release of its members in police and prison custody.
“We are demanding for the immediate prosecution of all those who were involved in the killing of our leader, late Mohammed Yusuf, who was captured alive by the military after the 2009 crisis in Maiduguri,” the letter said.
The sect also called for the investigation of an alleged poisoning of its members awaiting trial by officials of the Nigeria Prison Service (NPS) in Maiduguri.
It also called on the Federal Government to release the report of the Gen. Sarki Muktar-led committee of enquiry into the human rights abuses by security agents during the 2009 crisis.
The sect also urged the government to work towards implementing the Sharia Islamic code in all states with majority Muslim population in Nigeria.
“We will not enter any agreement with the government except those conditions are met,” it said.
The state Governor Kashim Shettima had on assumption of office called on the sect to discuss with his administration to end the killings.
Meanwhile, at least two Ogoni youths, Mr Goteh Keenam and Mr Dambani have been killed by riot policemen in an attempt to effect their arrest during a protest against the purported relocation of a cantonment in Zor-Sogho village in Khana Local Government area, the Movement for Survival of Ogoni People (MOSOP) has said.
A third youth, Mr Job Nkpai, who was said to be the mastermind of the crisis, lost his life when his kinsmen got provoked by the action of the police and reacted spontaneously.
The incident took place on Sunday when the villagers were resisting the alleged sale of a large parcel of their farmland for a so-called Port Harcourt military cantonment relocation project without their consent.
MOSOP in a statement signed by its spokesperson, Bari-ara Kpakalap, condemned the action of the police.
It accused the police of using excessive force, and called on the Rivers State government to immediately investigate the matter with a view to bringing the perpetrators to justice.
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