By PAMELA EBOH, Awka

A distraught Anambra lady, Mmesoma Ekpe, has cried out for help following the sudden death of her mother who was allegedly beaten to death by their landlord's son on Saturday, June 25, 2022, in Nkpor, Idemili North Local Government Area of Anambra State.

Narrating her story in a video, Ekpe, an indigene of Enugwu-Ukwu in Njikoka Council area said her mother, Mrs Uzoamaka Ekpe, was beaten to death by the second son of their landlord in their residence, at 5A Ugochukwu Lane, Nkpor, near the commercial city of Onitsha.

According to her, the incident happened on Saturday, when the landlord’s son suddenly declared a sanitation exercise for all tenants living in the compound.

She said she wondered why sanitation would be declared, when all the tenants pay monthly dues for the cleaning of the compound.

Ekpe added: “Around 9am, my younger sister went downstairs to go to her work place, she was stopped by the landlord’s second son, who asked her if the staircase had been scrubbed and she said no.

“It was a surprise to us that the boy stopped my sister from leaving the compound, when he was opening the gate for other tenants to go out to their businesses.

“My sister came upstairs and complained to my mother who went to corridor to find out why. When she asked the landlord's son, he started raining abuses on her and I told my mother to leave him, since the sanitation will end by 10:00am.

“We all stayed back, though I wanted to go to the shop at that time. When the sanitation exercise was over, I made to go to the market, but the boy stopped me. He shut the gate against me, but when other people living in the compound want to leave, he will open for them.

“My mother decided to intervene, insisting that he must open the gate as she does not know why all her children were being stopped from going out. It was then that the boy jerked my mother's clothe by the neck and started beating her, he then kicked her on the chest and she fell.

“We rushed her to the first hospital, they said the case was beyond them and referred us to Borommeo Hospital. It was there at Borommeo that the doctor declared my mother dead.”

While calling for justice for her mother, Miss Ekpe asked concerned individuals to help her and her siblings to relocate to another residence, as the family does not feel safe any longer living in the house of the man whose son killed their mother.

In her lamentations, she said: “My mother, Mrs Uzoamaka Ekpe, is from Ngodo Isuochi, Abia State, and married in Enugwu-Ukwu. She was a good woman who was always ready to lend a helping hand to anyone in need except she doesn’t have. I don’t know why anyone would kill her. We want justice for my mother, she is all we have, the breadwinner of our family.”

However, Police in Anambra had on Sunday arrested the culprit, 30-year-old Ebube Oba, who is involved in the murder.

The state Police Public Relations Officer, DSP Toochukwu Ikenga, told journalists that investigation had commenced, and that the culprit would be charged to court afterwards.

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