The Anambra State Police Command has arrested one Christopher Okadigbo of Nando Community in Anambra for allegedly killing his 82-year-old mother for ritual in a bid to get rich quick.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Okadigbo, 52, was arrested with his friend, Ameke Udolu, after they killed Mrs Rosaline Okadigbo and decapitated her body for money ritual.
The left eye and heart of the octogenarian were removed when her corpse was found in her apartment at Nando in the Anambra East Local Government Area on May 2.
The first son of the deceased, Chief Innocent Okadigbo, who confirmed the development on Wednesday at Nando told NAN that he was convinced that his younger brother’s motive was to use their mother’s body parts for ritual to get rich quick.
Innocent said that his late mother had called him on May 1 to report suspicious moves by Christopher his younger brother and Udolu around her apartment on May1.
“My mother told me on phone on May 1, 2018 that my younger brother Christopher came to her apartment with one Ameke Udolu and that they were moving round, making comments that were highly suspicious.
“My mother added that she was afraid of staying alone in her house, due to the kind of utterances she over-heard the duo making while moving round her apartment.
“In the early hours of May 2, less than 24 hours after my mother’s apprehensive telephone call to me, I received another call from one Pius Aniefule that my mother was found dead in a pool of her blood.’’
According to Innocent, minutes after Aniefule’s call my brother Christopher, who stopped relating with me since 1999 also called to inform me of the incident, claiming that he travelled to Mina, Niger State from where people at home broke the news to him.
Aniefule corroborated the account given by Innocent Okadigbo, saying: “I raised alarm which attracted people in the neighbourhood and later telephoned his first son Innocent on the gruesome killing of his mother.
“As people rushed to the scene, we saw Ameke Udolu coming out from one of the rooms of late Mrs Roseline Okadigbo and we held him.
“We collected his phone and uncovered some incriminating telephone communications between Udolu and Christopher, the second son of the deceased.
“When we got the phone, we forced him to make a call to Christopher and put on the speaker which Christopher did not know, then Christopher told Udolu to hurry down to Nteje Junction if he had accomplished the job and wait for him there.’’
Aniefule said that due to the revelation from the phone conversation between the two, an irate crowd started to beat up Udolu.
He said that it was the intervention of the president-general of the community and the arrival of security operatives, who later arrested the duo that saved them from being lynched.
The President-General of Nando Community, Chief Ignatius Aghadinuno, said that when he got to the home of the deceased on May 2, he saw the corpse of Roseline and aggrieved villagers as well as Udolu.
“Because of the massive beating Udolu was given, I pleaded with the people and subsequently, invited security operatives, who later arrested Udolu.
He said that Christopher was later caught hiding in the home of a native doctor close to Nando before he was handed over to the police.
Aghadinuno, however, appealed to the police to do thorough investigation on the matter to ensure that the perpetrators of the crime were not left off the hook.
Chief Uyammadu Anaeliaku, younger brother to the deceased, told reporters that Christopher had been fetish and appealed to government to assist the family by compelling him to exhume some charms he buried around their compound.
“My late sister Roseline gave birthday to 11 children. As we speak, only two are alive and at one time or the other Christopher was accused of the death of his siblings, due to his fetish activities,’’Anaeliaku alleged.
A senior police officer, who visited Nando on Wednesday over the development, referred journalists to the police headquarters in Awka for information on the matter. (NAN)