Community thrown into fear as assailants kill, dismember man in Anambra
THEREIS fear in Ayamelum Local Council of Anambra State following the discovery of the remains of a middle- aged man Mr, Okoye Tagbo, with his vital organs missing.
The Guardian learnt that Tagbo, a farmer, who hails from Umuokpanta, Orenja village in Omor, was said to have gone to his farm close to a disputed farmland near Anaku- Omor boundary to harvest cassava on January 10 and never returned.
He was allegedly murdered by yet- to- be identified assailants, and his remains was found in a shallow grave near the scene of the attack with head, heart, hands, feet and genital missing, fuelling speculation that he was murdered by warlords from neighbouring Anaku community.
The family reportedly raised the alarm when the widower with nine children
failed to return at nightfall, forcing the village to launch a frantic search for him.
A close relative of the deceased, High Chief Johnson Ifejika told newsmen yesterday that they found Tagbo buried in a shallow grave in the farm, where he has gone to harvest cassava.
He said: “The dead body, which we exhumed in the presence of police and military operatives that joined us in the search was without head, genital organ, hands and legs and the heart”.
According to him, the decapitated body of the victim has been deposited in the mortuary, while the Divisional Police Officer in charge of Anaku, has ordered Anaku leaders to produce the suspects behind the murder.
Lamenting their plight in Omor, their traditional ruler, HRH Igwe Dr Chris Oranu Chidume, condemned constant abduction and killing of Omor indigenes by suspected Anaku people for alleged ritual sacrifices, adding: “This continuous killing of Ndi- Omor is certainly not a welcomed development. I condemn it in totality and so should every well- meaning citizen of Ayamelum because it’s an illwind that blows no one good.”
Anambra State Police Public Relations Officer ( PPRO) DSP Tochukwu Ikenga, who confirmed the incident, said that the corpse has been exhumed and deposited at the morgue for autopsy.
According to Ikenga, the cause of the death of the man has not been ascertained as investigation was on to know the actual cause of his death.