TERRIBLE crimes are committed in the land all the time, but the current story simply beggars belief. Operatives of the Anambra State Police Command recently arrested four persons for burning a 74-year-old physically challenged woman to death! The incident occurred in Abagana in Dunukofia Local Government Area of the state on January 27. According to reports, the assailants procured a coffin and buried the victim immediately after the act, apparently to evade detection. The victim, Alice Anene, was suspected to have been killed for ritual purposes and the principal suspect initially remained at large. However, four persons connected to the incident, including Igwe’s 21-year-old girlfriend, Chinenye Ekwenugo, were arrested. Said the Public Relations Officer of the Anambra State Police Command, SP Tochukwu Ikenga: “The Anambra State Police operatives serving at Abagana Divisional Police Headquarters today, 26/1/2024, at 9 am arrested four suspects, including a 21-year-old lady, Chinenye Ekwenugo, from Ifitedunu. They were arrested over the burning of a 74-year-old woman in a wheelchair in Abagana. During interrogation, the suspect Chinenye confessed that her boyfriend, Ifeanyi Igwe, who is currently at large, and three others set the victim ablaze and procured a casket to bury her before the intervention of the security operatives. Efforts have been initiated to apprehend the main suspect, Ifeanyi Igwe, who is still on the run. The body of the deceased has been deposited in the morgue for autopsy and further investigation into the cause of death.”
Ikenga listed the names of the other three suspects as Uzochukwu Okeke, 47, Fidel Anayo, 60, and Ikenna Anene, 54, all of them from the Abagana community. Reacting to the incident, the state Commissioner of Police, Nnaghe Obono Itam, called for calm and ordered the immediate transfer of the case to the Homicide Section of the State Criminal Investigation Department for a comprehensive investigation. Subsequently, however, the principal suspect, whose name was then given as Obinna Anene, was arrested. Said the state police spokesman: “The suspect: Obinna Anene ‘m’ aged 33yrs of Amene Village, Abagana… is being transferred to the State Criminal Investigation Department, Homicide SCID Section Awka for a debrief. Further details shall be communicated.”
It is distressing to even think about this incident. The alleged crime is beyond cruel. It is extreme. It is soul-crushing. A person with reduced mobility, and an old woman to boot, was executed in the most dastardly fashion by a gang of criminals intent on profiting from her blood. This was a woman who, even in the case of a fire outbreak, would have needed someone to help her to safety, and would certainly have been in a lot of trouble if there was no one around. Sadly, the incident in which she died wasn’t an accident or a disaster but a cruel, calculated act of wickedness by a band of bloodthirsty, extremely wicked and heartless villains. As an old, wheel chair-bound woman, the late Mrs Anene would have suffered untold agony as the attackers set upon her and brought her life to an end with sheer sadistic pleasure. She would no doubt have begged for mercy and her screams would have been heartrendingly agonising but the merchants of death and destruction, the would-be emergency billionaires allegedly involved in occult manipulations for wealth creation, did not care in the least. They needed to make money and plenty of it, and would let nothing stand in their way. It would not even matter if the suspects come up with a different story in this case: the fact is that they allegedly sent an innocent old woman to her untimely grave. What a cruel act!
Read Also: Nestlé Nigeria announces investment of over N1.8bn in dairy development
Why burn a helpless old lady just because you want to make money? Why seek to profit from bloodshed? Even if the so-called money ritual that the suspects were reported to have been intent on is real, is it worth the shedding of human blood, the emplacement of permanent anguish in the home of the victim and among her relations? What kind of human being places the vision of fast cars and luxury homes over and above the sanctity of human life? Do the perpetrators of such evil acts even stop to think that they themselves or their relations could become victims of the same demonic practice through which they craved wealth? As we have said time and again, there are no self-confessed ritualists on the Forbes rich list, and we hasten to add that across Nigerian history, no one has been bold enough to tell members of his/her community that (s)he is a ritualist who killed their relations to make money! How sad that instead of working hard and seeking to roll out innovative schemes based on social needs to make money, a band of desperate criminals still believe that they can make money by shedding human blood!
To be sure, the ritual murderers ride on the corruption that permeates society and makes it reluctant to question emergency billionaires. If the society had stuck to the time-honoured moral codes which did not permit anyone to demonstrate affluence without proven means of legitimate income, the blood-thirsty killers on the prowl across the land would not have gained ground. It is time governments at all levels embraked on more aggressive conscientization of the people on the dangers of illegitimate wealth, enforced the law more strictly, and punished transgressors more severely.
May the soul of Mrs Alice Anene rest in sweet repose.
The government should ensure justice in this case.
