“I killed him (stepbrother) and raped his sister to repay my father because he hated me and my mother while he loved them and their mother. That is the only way I can punish him for such attitude towards me.” This was the confession of a 14-year-old boy, Chinedu Efemena, who reportedly strangulated his eight-year-old stepbrother, Oghenekaro Efemena, and raped his six-year-old sister at Otibio Street, Ofagbe in Ndokwa West Local Government Area of Delta State, after he was arrested by men of the police command in the state.
This came as a 27-year-old man, Ifeanyi Oguejiofor, reportedly stabbed to death his father, Osita Oguejiofor, stabbed his mother and himself at Ezimuko Nsukwu village, Abatete in Idemili North Local Government Area of Anambra State at the weekend. The Delta State Commissioner of Police, Mohammad Mustafa, paraded Chinedu alongside 27 other suspected criminals at the police headquarters in Asaba.
While the commissioner said Chinedu was 18 years, the suspect said he was born in 2004, saying that the command foisted 18 years on him to be able to prosecute him. Mustafa said operatives of the Homicide Department swung into action and arrested the suspect after a man, Afure Efemena (55), of No. 59 Otibio Street, Ofagbe, Delta State, registered a complaint.
“I killed Oghenekaro by sitting on his head and holding his two hands while he was asleep until I noticed that he had stopped breathing and sneaked out of the house,” the suspect. Chinedu said now that he had killed his stepbrother and placed a stigma on his sister, he would see how his father would continue to show love to them at the expense of other children.
Meanwhile, Ifeanyi’s mother luckily escaped death. The suspect also stabbed himself several times in a bid to commit suicide. It was learnt that trouble started on that fateful day about 8a.m. when the boy, a commercial motorcycle operator, approached his father and demanded the money he previously asked him for the procurement of a new motorcycle since the one he was currently using was old and worn out. In response, his father told him that he had no money to buy a new motorcycle, but that he bought a new engine to replace the one in the motorcycle since he said the motorcycle was old and no longer functioning well.
The father’s response did not go down well with Ifeanyi hence he went to the kitchen, brought out the kitchen knife and stabbed his father several times in the neck and shoulder. Osita slumped and died on the spot. Afterwards, Ifeanyi pounced on his mother who was crying frantically for help and stabbed her in the ribs and shoulder.
When she fell on the ground, the suspect thought she was also dead. He later tried to commit suicide by stabbing himself in the chest several times but he did not die. A neighbour said it was Ifeanyi’s mother’s cry which attracted residents and passers-by and they immediately alerted the local vigilantes as well as the Ogidi Divisional Police Officer (DPO), Mr. Mark Ijarafu, who rushed to the scene with his Divisional Crime Officer (DCO) 1, Mr. Fidelis Eyisi, to arrest the suspected murderer. Confessing to the crime after his arrest, Ifeanyi said: “I did what my spirit asked me to do.”
Ijarafu, who confirmed the incident, said Osita’s body had been deposited at the morgue of Iyi-Enu Mission Hospital, Ogidi, while his mother had already been treated at an undisclosed hospital and discharged. According to him, the suspect is in detention while investigation continues. A source, however, said Ifeanyi was a drug addict who also had psychiatric problems.
The source said the suspect’s action might not be unconnected with his psychiatric challenge. This came barely one week after a man killed his four children, sister-in-law and himself at Awada in the commercial city of Onitsha, Anambra State. In another development, Mustafa said policemen attached to the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) recovered arms from bandits who stabbed a man, Lucky Igili, of No. 8, Nnotu Street, Ogume, Delta State.
The commissioner said the suspects, Collins Ossai Owelazu (27) of Ogbe-Ogume Quarters, Ogume, and three others currently at large, armed themselves with gun and cutlasses, went to the victim’s house and robbed him of N120,000 cash, new Daylong motorcycle and in the process stabbed him to death on February 16. He said: “The suspect was later apprehended and he has confessed to the crime. Effort is ongoing to apprehend the fleeing suspects.”
The police chief listed items recovered from the suspect to include one single-barrelled cut-to-size gun and a face mask. He warned that the directive of the Inspector-General of Police (IG), Ibrahim Idris, for the enforcement of the Firearm Act banning the possession and use of illegal and prohibited firearms, ammunition, weapons and devices locally fabricated or modified that could cause death or injuries to persons, would be enforced to the letter in the state.
He said: “The Delta State Police Command has constituted a task force headed by the Assistant Commissioner of Police in-charge of Operations Department, ACP Wagbara Peter, to immediately commence the mopping up of the afore-listed categories of weapons in the state.
“Consequently, the general public, individuals and groups such as vigilantes and neighbourhood watch, town unions, hunters and watch night men or any group or association under any capacity or guise other than statutory security agencies recognised and gazetted by the Federal Government of Nigeria to bear firearms of specified category, who are currently possessing and using prohibited/illegal firearms such as pump action gun of all categories and the likes for whatsoever purpose in the state are hereby given 21 days with effect from 1st March, 2018, to surrender them.”
