50-year-old widow ‘raped’ to death in Abia community

There is palpable fear in Aro-Umuekwe village, Aro-Ngwa Ancient Kingdom in Osisioma Local Government Area of Abia State following the killing of a 50-year-old widow who was identified as Enyidiya Ihejirika by unidentified persons.

Aro-Umuekwe is said to be a village close to a military checkpoint at Aro-Ngwa junction off Aba-Port Harcourt Expressway.

While sources in the village told reporters the woman was raped to death in a farmland where she had gone to do menial work, others however, asserted that the woman may have been killed and abandoned by suspected ritualists who may have feared that someone may have spotted them while carrying out their ugly act.

According to some of the sources, they said that the villagers got to know about the unfortunate incident when some people who saw the lifeless body of the deceased in the farm the next day raised alarm.

“The woman’s husband is dead. She is very popular in the village because she does menial job for many people. On the fateful day, she was said to have gone to a communal farm to work for someone, but she didn’t come back.

“We learnt that she had talked about attending a wedding which many thought that she had attended, only for us to get information by people who had gone to the communal land to farm the next day to discover her lifeless body.

“Her husband died so many years ago. The eldest son who was in Jos, Plateau State, came back years ago because of the religious crisis there and has since been doing menial job as well. There hasn’t been any incident of herdsmen in our village in the past and in recent time. So, I will not say that she was killed by herdsmen. It is something that security agencies will investigate to find out,” a family source narrated.

Another source said “The community is in fear at the moment. Everybody is now living in fears. We sleep with our eyes open. We are appealing to heads of various security agencies and the state governor to come to our aid before the situation gets out of hand. Knowing that December is just by the corner and like we all know that this is a time where many things happen, that is why we are raising alarm now for quicker and urgent intervention by security agencies.”

When contacted, the State Commissioner of Police, CP Ene Okon in a telephone interview confirmed the death of late Mrs. Ihejirika.

According to the Police Commissioner, there were traces of blood from the deceased mouth and nose which gave the suspicion that she could have been murdered.

Okon said that the police had begun investigation into the matter to unravel the cause of her death.