A young man, Endurance Akpan, 18 years
old, has killed his mother in Akwa-Ibom State. Similarly, a pastor,
Gideon Idio has killed her female church member while a man, Mr Anietie
Obong has also killed his 16-year-old housemaid on allegation of
witchcraft.
The three murder suspects arrested by the police are
cooling off their heels in the cell at the Akwa Ibom State command
headquarters, Uyo where they were paraded on Tuesday.
Akpan, from
Idio Nung Iba village, in Etim Ekpo Local Government Area of the state,
was said to have killed his mother, Mrs. Lovina Akpan, after he arrived
the village from Port Harcourt, Rivers State, where he used to live with
his father.
The police said the suspect, who is the last child of the
family of eight children, on arrival, tricked his mother out of her room
into his room with a promise of surprising her with a gift from Port
Harcourt. Instead of presenting a gift to the woman, he strangulated
her to death.
The state Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO) Ms
Cordelia Nwawe explained that after killing the woman, the suspect
pulled her out of the room and took her close to a pit toilet within the
compound and dumped her there in the morning of November 25.
Thereafter, he left for Port Harcourt, where he was arrested.
On his
part, Pastor Gideon Idio, of God’s Power City, from Nkwa in Ibiono
Local Government Area, but residing at 14 Fine Face Street, Off Enen
Afaha Street, Uyo, was said to have called the deceased Joanna Okon,
‘f,’ his church member, to come over to his office. Nwawe said on
arrival, both of them engaged in a scuffle, the cause of which still
remained unknown to the police. She said the issue degenerated to a
point that the suspect attacked the deceased and she collapsed and died
inside his office.
She said, “The so-called pastor locked the
deceased inside his office and used the deceased phone to call her
close relation claiming, to be a tricycle operator who picked up the
girl from Udotung Ubo Street enroute Itam and she slumped inside the
tricycle and she is taking her to an undisclosed hospital.
“As if
that was not enough, the suspect later informed the relations of the
girl that he saw her corpse at IBB Road, Uyo and removed the corpse to
his office, after which the suspect and relations of the deceased
conveyed the corpse to a mortuary at Ibiono Ibom.”
Another murder
suspect, Anietie Obong, ‘m,’ was said to have taken custody of the
deceased, Happiness Isaiah, ‘f,’ with a promise of sponsoring her
secondary education, but early this month, the suspect’s wife lost her
three months pregnancy and the suspect was unhappy about the incident.
Nwawe stated that when the deceased had served the suspect with his wife
dinner, Obong summoned the deceased to his parlour, beat her which
resulted in lacerations to her leg, hand, stomach and the back. She
said, “The suspect further poured hot water on the deceased’s thoracic
cavity and the back. These injuries led to the death of the 16 years
old victim.”
Confessing why she killed his mother, Akpan explained:
“I killed her because she tried to poison me and not to let me
understand myself any more