A man, Chidi Onyishi, has allegedly killed his seven-year-old son, Chimdalu, for a money ritual.
The Enugu State Police Command, while confirming the incident on Thursday, said the suspect was arrested along with a visually-impaired pastor, Okeke Eneokwor, who allegedly led him to commit the crime. The 36-year-old father killed the boy on October 20, 2021.Two days later, he was said to have reported to the police that his son was missing.
Following an investigation, police operatives attached to the Central Police Station on Saturday, November 6, arrested Chidi.
The state Police Public Relations Officer, Daniel Ndukwe, said Chidi, who lives on Taylor Avenue, Coal Camp, Enugu, killed the boy and buried him in a shallow grave at the bank of a stream in Abakpa-Nike, Enugu.
After confessing to the crime, Chidi reportedly led police operatives to arrest his accomplice, Eneokwor.
“He also led police operatives and a medical team to a stream in Abakpa-Nike, Enugu, where the decomposing corpse of the minor was exhumed from a shallow grave, after he and his cohort murdered and buried the child on October 20, 2021.
“Meanwhile, the Commissioner of Police, Abubakar Lawal, has ordered the State CID, Enugu, to conduct a thorough and conclusive investigation that will lead to the prosecution of everyone found culpable in the act. “He also called on residents of the state to remain vigilant, law-abiding, and promptly report criminals and their activities to the nearest police station or by calling the command’s emergency hotlines,” Ndukwe added.
In a related development, an Akwa Ibom State High Court sitting in Uyo, the state capital, has sentenced a man, Victor Obot, to death for killing his father. Obot, a native of Ikot Obio Mkpong Ikono, in the Uyo Local Government Area, was found guilty of killing his father, whom he accused of being responsible for his misfortune.
Delivering judgement in the matter on Wednesday, the trial judge, Justice Okon Okon, said there was credible evidence that the victim died after the accused attacked him with a machete, which was recovered at the scene of the crime on 7C, Abak Road, Uyo, on July 6, 2019.
“There is credible and acceptable evidence that the victim died shortly after the accused attacked him with a machete. I have no doubt that the accused did not only intend to cause the deceased grievous bodily harm but resolved to eliminate him for the nebulous, unsubstantiated allegation that his father was the cause of his problems,” Justice Okon said.
The court held that “a man who stabs or inflicts machete cuts on another in the neck region is deemed to have intended to kill or cause grievous bodily harm to the person. “The intent to kill can be formed from the nature of the weapon used and the use of a lethal and death-threatening or death-dealing weapon in the sensitive part of the body like the neck.”
The court said the prosecution proved beyond reasonable doubt the essential ingredients of the offense of murder against the 36-year-old.
Justice Okon also held that the convict acted callously in the gruesome murder of his father. He said, “The accused betrayed his father. Even the heavens weep over the senseless killing of the old man, whose death the son rejoiced over and construed it as the beginning of his freedom from his problems.
“The deceased did not deserve to die by the very hand of his own son. “I hereby find you, Victor Etimeyo Obot, guilty of murder as charged and accordingly convict you. You are to be hanged by the neck until you be dead.”
