Two suspects have been arrested by the Anambra State Police command for the alleged murder of 82-year-old widow, Mrs. Roseline Okadigbo for ritual purpose.

The suspects are 52-year old Christopher Okadigbo and his friend, Ameke Udolu.

Information gathered by News Express has it that the left eye and the heart of the deceased octogenarian were missing when her corpse was found in her apartment at Nando, Anambra East Area Local Government Area of the state.

In a chat with journalists, the first son of the late octogenarian, Chief Innocent Okadigbo, said that his younger brother’s motive was to use her late mother’s corpse for ritual.

Narrating his story, Okadigbo said: “My late mother called on phone May 1, 2018, to report the suspicious movement by my younger brother, Christopher Okadigbo and his friend, Udolu around her apartment.

“She told me that my younger brother Christopher came to her apartment with one Ameke Udolu and were moving around making comments that were highly suspicious.

“My mother said she was afraid of staying alone in her house due to the kind of utterances she overheard the duo make while moving around her apartment.

“In the early hours of May 2, 2018, less than 24 hours after my mother’s apprehensive telephone report to me, I received another call from one Pius Aniefule that my mother was found dead in a pool of her blood.”

He explained that shortly after receiving a call about his mother’s demise, his younger brother who he stopped communicating with since 1999 called to inform him of the incident.

According to him, his younger brother claimed that he travelled to Minna, Niger State, and got the information from people at home.

Corroborating the story, Mr. Pius Aniefule said he was the one that raised the alarm that attracted people in the neighbourhood to the Okadigbo’s home before placing a call to the first son, Innocent, to alert him of the ugly incident.

He added: “As people were rushing to the scene, we saw Ameke Udolu coming out of one of the rooms of late Mrs. Roseline Okadigbo’s house and we held him.

“We collected his phone and discovered some incriminating telephone communications between Udolu and Christopher the second son of the deceased.

“We forced him to make a call to Christopher and put it on the speaker without Christopher knowing, then Christopher told him to hurry down to Nteje junction if he had accomplished the job and wait for him there.”

He said that following the revelation from the phone chats between the two, the irate crowd descended on Udolu, adding that it took the intervention of the president-general of the community, and the arrival of security personnel, who later arrested the duo to save them from being lynched.

On his part, the President General of Nando community, Chief Ignatius Aghadinuno, who said that on arrival to the home of the Okadigbos, he saw the corpse of the deceased as well as the second suspect who had already been beaten to a pulp.

“I had to plead with the people to spare Udolu and immediately invited security operatives who later arrested him.”

He revealed that his accomplice, Christopher, was later caught hiding in the home of a native doctor very close to the community before being handed over to the police.

He urged the security agency to ensure that the perpetrators of the heinous crime were not left off the hook.

The younger brother of the deceased, Chief Uyammadu Anaeliaku, told journalists that Christopher had been a fetish person and appealed to the government to assist the family by compelling him to exhume charms he buried around their compound.

His words: “My late sister Roseline gave birth to eleven children but as we speak only two are alive and at one time or the other Christopher was accused of being responsible for the death of his siblings due to his fetish activities.”

A senior police officer who visited Nando on Wednesday referred journalists to police headquarters, Awka for further police comments on the matter but a call placed to the Police Public Relations Officer, PPRO, ASP Nkiru Nwode, did not go through as her number was not available.

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