Women numbering over 3,0000 took to the streets of Umunze community in Orumba South local government area of Anambra State on Tuesday, March 14, 2023, to protest the ritual murder of a 72-year-old woman, Mrs. Charity Okoli, by her domestic worker and his accomplices.
NEWSUNPLUG reported that late Mrs. Okoli had her breasts, finger, tongue and private part harvested while alive after the suspected ritualists had raped her at her home two weeks ago.
The victim was rushed to the Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu University Teaching Hospital Amaku Awka for treatment, where she later died.
The prime suspect, Onyebuchi Ezeh, who has since been arrested, confessed that they were sent by a native doctor to get the needed organs of the victim in order to become billionaires.
The suspect further confessed that they are a gang of five that resides in the neighbouring Ezira community before the incident but are now at large.
Ezeh is currently cooling off his heels at the State Criminal Investigative Department (SCID) of the Anambra State Police Command in Awka while two others are on the run.
The protesting women with green leaves and placards also demanded a mass exit of all Abakiliki Indigenes out of Umunze town for the atrocious and condemnable killing of Mrs. Okoli.
The women took their complaints to the Umunze Area police command headquarters, the palace of His Royal Highness, Igwe Promise N. Eze and the Transition Committee Chairman of the local government Hon Neville Uchendu as well as other relevant bodies.
“The entire Umunze resolved to come together today for a peaceful protest because Abakiliki people resident in our community raped one of us in Ubaha village and cut off her tongue, one of her fingers, two nipples of her breasts and her private part,” spokesperson and President of the Women in the area, Mrs Enekwechi Bridget said.
“So, that’s why we are here to complain to the Transition Committee Chairman of the local government area so he can take our report to Awka the state capital for necessary action
“We are demanding justice and that the suspects should face the full weight of the law because women are not supposed to face such torture and suffering in the hands of heartless criminal elements.
The President General of the Umunze Progressives Union, Chief Hippolite Uchechukwu Olua who addressed the women, commended them for their peaceful conduct and urged them to go about their protest in peace as their complaints would be given prompt attention by the police and other relevant authorities.
“Our relationship with the Abakiliki people in Umunze is becoming a very bad one. It’s not favouring us anymore because the way and manner they commit crimes in Umunze that we have consoled for a while, is too much,” he told journalists.
“Of recent our wife, Mrs Charity Okolie was butchered while alive by Abakiliki men in a gruesome way but we said no as a community; while we have accommodated these people as our brothers from Abakiliki, they are killing our people, they are harassing our women and raping them in their farmlands,”
Traditional Ruler of the Umunze community Igwe Promise Eze, on his part, lamented that his subjects have suffered so much in the hands of the Abakaliki people who came to the town to do farm work and other jobs.
He noted that the victim died due to loss of blood which made her to be unconscious after she was rushed to the hospital in Amawbia where she later died, a development that angered everybody.
The monarch however urged the people of the area to remain calm as police and leaders of the community are working round the clock to ensure that justice is done at the end of the day.
“I have told the DPO who’s closest to us here that the suspect must be charged to court for murder and he has assured me that the matter would not be swept under the carpet. I have instructed the youths to exercise restraint while awaiting the outcome of the case,” the Monarch added.
