A 12 year old girl has been killed in Calabar over the outrageously ridiculous. The pre-teenager, Chidera Timothy was killed by a 28 year old man, Ikechi Okoro, over a debt of N800 owed the girl’s mother by the man’s brother.
Chidera’s father, Mr. Timothy, narrated the cause of the incident to journalists. He said Ikechi’s brother, a tricycle mechanic by the name of Orieke, refused to pay an N800 debt owed his wife Mercy (Chidera’s mother) for several months.
Timothy said, “The debt rose to N800 and has remained so for two months. Whenever my wife asks him about the debt, he would claim he does not have money. When my wife discovered that he no longer patronised her but rather bought things from a nearby shop and still paid cash, she threatened to seize his tools.
“On Monday, December 17, 2012, my wife went to him to collect her money but the boy said he did not have money, my wife then picked his tools and the boy did not react.”
Things spiraled out of control when Ikechi waded intot he matter after one of his brother’s customers complained of a missing spare part, which was presumed to be inside the toolbox.
Timothy continued, “Ikechi came with the customer to my wife’s shop to look for the spare part in the toolbox, but because my wife didn’t know them, she refused to release the box. She insisted that they ought to have come with Orieke and her N800 before she would release the toolbox.
“Then the fake naval man started insulting my wife and threatened to beat her up if she did not release the toolbox. He said the worst that could happen was for the police to arrest him. As he struggled to enter the shop to collect the toolbox, my wife blocked him and in the process, he slapped her and she held his shirt.
“As the trouble was going on, my son, Chukwuemeka, who had returned from where he went to fetch water tried to ask why the man slapped his mother then Ikechi allegedly ran to their house and collected a machete and returned with his younger brother and the elder sister.
“Three of them beat up my son and my wife. Friday used the machete on my son and gave him a cut on the left hand while the sister hit my wife with a wood she was holding.”
Timothy narrated how his son left the scene of the melee to locate him. By the time Timothy reached the shop things had degenerated even further.
Timothy said, “As I was trying to find out what happened and to calm him down, he struggled and freed himself from the people holding him and said that he was going to kill somebody. He said as a naval man he could do whatever he wished.
“He threw the bottle at my son but he dodged it. However, the bottle hit my daughter on the head. She fainted immediately. I rushed her to Mambo Clinic which was the nearest clinic for treatment. She was there till December 23 when she died.”
Ikechi fled the scene and has yet to be apprehended by the police. However the police have arrested his younger brother Friday Okoro.