The Anambra state Police have apprehended one Ifeanyi Okpoko better known as Anagwanti, on suspicion of ritual murder. The suspect, who is a metal fabricator, and hails from Umunnaama, Eziowelle town in Idemili North Local Government Area of Anambra State allegedly abducted a 16-year-old boy identified as Chidera Ezeanya from a compound on Sunday, 1st of October.
According to reports, the culprit allegedly tied and hung Chidera on a hand-crane and by the time his dead body was discovered the next day by the youths in the village, some vital organs were missing from his body.
An eye witness, Chukwudi Okafor said the deceased was in his compound playing on that fateful afternoon with his age mates when Ifeanyi Okpoko called him.
According to him, Chidera’s play mates including himself, had thought that the man wanted to send him on an errand since all of them are from the same Umunnaama village.
He said when they waited till night without seeing him, they went to their various houses. According to him, the next morning being Monday October 2, when they learnt that Chidera had not come back, they all went to Ifeanyi Okpoko’s house in search of him, only to find him tied and hung on a hand-crane.
“We shouted and ran out to call elderly people in the village but before we came back, Okpoko had untied the body, put it in his car and drove out of his compound.. It was later that we heard that his body had been deposited at a mortuary in Ogidi.
An octogenarian, Pa Ezekiel Uzomah who expressed shock said that what Okpoko did was an abomination.
According to him, the youths had wanted to burn the suspect’s house but they were restrained from taking laws into their hands. He said the village, instead has tied palm frond around Okpoko’s house as a sign of “ostracization.”
