Quote:By Vincent Ujumadu, Awka

THE Anambra State Police command has arrested one Christopher Okadigbo (52) suspected to be responsible for the murder of his mother, Mrs. Rosaline Okadigbo, 82, a widow at Nando in Anambra East local government area for alleged ritual purposes. 

Also in police net was Mr. Ameke Udolu, who was said to be a friend of Christopher and an alleged accomplice. It was gathered that the left eye and the heart of the late octogenarian were removed when her corpse was seen in her house at Nando. First son of the deceased, Chief Innocent Okadigbo said yesterday at Nando that his younger brother was responsible for the dastardly act, adding that the motive was to use his late mother for ritual. 

He said that his late mother, who was hale and hearty, reported the suspicious move of his brother and Ameke Ndolu to him on May 1, 2018, only for the woman to be found dead the following day. 

He said: “My mother told me on telephone on May 1, 2018 that my younger brother, Christopher came to her apartment with one Ameke Udolu and were moving round and making comments that were highly suspicious. “My mother added that she was afraid of staying alone in her house due to the kind of utterances she overheard the duo make while moving round her apartment. 

“In the early hours of May 2, 2018, less than 24 hours after my mother’s apprehensive telephone report to me, I received another call from one Pius Aniefule that my mother was found dead in the pool of her blood. “Minutes after Aniefule’s call, my brother, Christopher, who stopped relating with me since 1999, also called to inform me of the incident, claiming that he traveled to Minna, Niger State from where people at home broke the news to him.” 

Corroborating the allegation, Aniefule said he raised an alarm, which attracted people in the neighbourhood and later telephoned his first son, Innocent on the gruesome killing of his mother. He said: “As people rushed to the scene, we saw Ameke Udolu coming out of one of the rooms of late Mrs. Rosaline Okadigbo’s house and we overpowered and held him. “We collected his phone and uncovered some incriminating telephone communications between Udolu and Christopher, the second son of the deceased. 

“When we got the phone, we forced him to make a call to Christopher and put on the speaker, which Christopher did not know. It was then that Christopher told Udolu to hurry down to Nteje junction if he had accomplished the job and wait for him there.” He said, due to the revelation from the phone conversation between the two, the irate crowd started to beat up Udolu. 

He said that it was the intervention of the President-General of the community and the arrival of security operatives, who later arrested the two suspects, that saved them from being lynched. Chief Ignatius Aghadinuno, the President General of Nando community said that at the time he got to the home of the deceased, he saw the corpse of Rosaline and aggrieved villagers, as well as Udolu. 

According to him, because of the massive beating Udolu received from the people, he pleaded with the people to stop and subsequently invited security operatives, who later arrested Udolu over the act. The President-General said that Christopher was later caught hiding in the home of a native doctor very close to the community before he was handed over to police. 

He appealed to the police to do a thorough investigation on the matter and ensure that the perpetrators of the heinous crime were brought to book. Younger brother of the deceased, Chief Uyammadu Anaeliaku alleged that Christopher had previously been identified with fetish activities and appealed to the state government to assist the family by compelling him to exhume the charms he allegedly buried around their compound. 

He said: “My late sister Rosaline gave birth to eleven children and as we speak, only two are alive. The rest died under questionable circumstances.” A source at the police headquarters in Awka said the state police command was already on top of the situation.