Motorcyclist sells nurse to ritual killers for N10,000
A
commercial motorcyclist, identified simply as Ifeanyi, has been arrested for
allegedly handing over a nurse, Mrs. Helen Ilonge, to ritual killers after
collecting N10, 000.
PUNCH
Metro learnt that
Ilonge had on Tuesday last week took Ifeanyi’s motorcycle on her way to Igoli
along the Ogoja-Ikom Highway in Ogoja LGA.
Ilonge,
the coordinator of Primary Health Care in Bekwarra Local Government Area of
Cross River State, was coming from a programme at the Assemblies of God Church,
Abakaliki in Ebonyi State, and had alighted from a vehicle at Okpongrinya
junction before taking the bike.
It
was gathered that Ilonge (51) was beheaded while her other vital reproductive
parts such as breast and vagina were removed for ritual purposes.
Ilonge’s
neighbour, Mrs. Theresa Idagwu, on Sunday said, “Ifeanyi took the lady from
Okpogrinya Junction on the pretence that he was taking her to the village,
which is 10 minutes drive from the point. But along the way, he stopped and
handed her over to kidnappers at Ukpe.
Meanwhile,
the woman had called her daughter, Victoria, around 9pm that she had taken a
bike at Okpogrinya Junction on her way to Igoli. She said when she gets to her
destination; she would call again so that Victoria would boil water for her to
take her bath. That was Ilonge’s last call.”
Repeated
calls made to the woman’s line, according to Idagwu, indicated that it was
switched off.
She
said Ilonge’s family became worried when the woman did not return home. “We
went everywhere- police stations, hospitals and even her friends in Igoli,
thinking that may be an accident had occurred along the road but we got
nothing,” Idagwu added.
Two
days later, Idagwu said someone called Victoria on her phone and informed her
that her mother had been kidnapped. The caller demanded a ransom of N50, 000 to
be remitted in form of recharge cards.
She
said, “Since her daughter could not raise the money, she rushed to the Bekwarra
LGA headquarters where the head of administration, Mr. Bisong Bogbo, and the
chairman, Mr. Linus Edeh, provided the money with which she bought recharge
cards and sent to the caller.
“The
voice claimed that he needed the recharge cards so he could sell and run away
from his master who is a ritual killer. He claimed that he had been serving his
master for a long time and wanted to run away. He said once he gets the cards,
he will break the door where the nurse is being kept and release her.”
The
LGA’s head of administration, Bogbo, confirmed that the cards were sent to the
kidnapper through Victoria’s telephone.
He
said immediately the alleged kidnapper confirmed receipt of the cards; he
switched off his telephone.
Luck,
however, ran out of Ifeanyi. Policemen tracked his telephone line and
discovered that he called Victoria from Abuochiche.
Further
investigations, it was gathered, showed that Ifeanyi had been selling the cards
in the village immediately he got them.
When
he was arrested, Bogbo told our correspondent that Ifeanyi led the police to
one of the ritual killers identified simply as Elvis.
Elvis,
according to Bogbo, confessed that the nurse had already been killed and some
of her vital organs removed before Ifeanyi asked for the recharge cards.
Elvis
also said the remains of the woman were buried in a swamp.
At
the council headquarters, one of the late nurse’s colleagues, Mr. Gabriel Ogar,
said she was probably the kindest woman he ever worked with.
Ogar
said, “I have worked with five coordinators, but I know that she is just the
best so far. She worked to the admiration of Governor Liyel Imoke and now she
has been killed leaving her five children without a helper.
“Her
husband died 12 years ago and since then she has been the one taking care of
the children and only one has graduated. Please let the government do something
for those poor children.”
When
contacted on Monday, the state Commissioner of Police, Mr. Osita Ezechukwu,
said the police were still investigating the matter.
He
said four suspects had been apprehended by the anti-homicide unit, adding that
when the investigation was completed the suspects would be prosecuted.
“We
have taken confessional statement from them. Those who are not involved have
been allowed to go while those who are involved are still in detention,”
Ezechukwu said.
Posts
