There is palpable tension in Ezeala, Umuezeala autonomous community in the Ehime Mbano Local Government Area of Imo State following the discovery of the decomposing corpse of Innocent Obi, the Deputy Registrar of the Federal Polytechnic, Uwana, in Ebonyi State.
Obi, a native of the area, was said to have been kidnapped from his house in the village after he returned from Ebonyi State last weekend.
Our correspondent gathered on Tuesday from the village sources that the victim travelled to his village in Imo State from his base in Ebonyi State for the funeral rites of his relative.
The deceased, popularly known by villagers as Onye Army, was said to have retired from the military before joining the service of the Federal Polytechnic, Uwana.
He was said to have also applied to be the next substantive registrar of the institution before his untimely death.
It was further gathered that no sooner than Obi had retired to his family house in the village after the funeral last weekend than some hoodlums numbering over six invaded his house around 10 pm.
The assailants were said to have operated in military and police uniforms.
“They broke through the main door and started using machetes and axes on him.
“His cry for help attracted villagers to the scene, but the boys who were operating on three motorcycles, started shooting consistently into the air.
“The shooting forced everybody who had come out for his rescue back. And they abducted Dee Onye Army from that Friday night, leaving heavy blood stains in the house”, one of the villagers said.
The source added that the villagers, the following day, Saturday, had summoned a search party, which went in search of him.
“It was late Sunday afternoon that we got information about a decomposing corpse lying between Ehime Mbano and Ahiazu Mbaise.
“When our people visited the scene that Sunday, it was the dead body of our brother, Dee Onye Army, that we met.
“They gruesomely butchered him beyond recognition.
“Dee Onye Army was a man who ensured that any youth who wanted to go to school got admission. So many youths were given admission to his school. He never lived like a rich man, always unassuming.
“It was now that he started building his own house in the village and that building is just within the decking stage before his death”, the villager said.
The incident is said to have left the community and its neighbours in great fear, following the recurrence of similar killings and other related criminal activities in the area, particularly the killing of about five security operatives in the area recently.
Another source who hails from the same village as the victim, who didn’t want his name in print, confided in our correspondent that the killing of the deputy registrar had caused panic in the community.
When contacted, the spokesperson for the Imo State Police Command, Henry Okoye, said he had yet to be briefed about the incident.
Efforts to reach the Public Relations Officer of the Federal Polytechnic, Unwana, Afikpo, Ebonyi State, Adline Okeke, failed.
Calls made to her mobile phone were neither answered nor returned.
Equally, messages sent to her mobile phone were not responded to as of the time of filing this report, on Tuesday. – Punch.
