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From Wilson Okereke, Afikpo
A middle-aged herbalist, Nwabuike Ukwa, has been arrested by the Police in Abakaliki, Ebonyi State capital, for allegedly causing the death of Master Prince Anosike, at Agbaja Unuhu, Abakaliki Local Government Area.
It was gathered that a mother of three, simply identified as Mrs. Anosike, brought her eight-year-old son to the herbalist for treatment.
Our source disclosed that some days after local treatment of an ailment suspected to be severe malaria had commenced, the boy’s health suddenly deteriorated from bad to worse and the mother, noticing that the situation was going out of hand, rushed the sick child to the hospital but he gave up the ghost before medical help could come his way.
The bereaved mother, who accused the herbalist of causing her son’s death, reported the matter to the police, who swung into action and arrested him.
There was, however, a twist, as yet-to-be-identified persons stealthily invaded Ukwa’s compound, and set the place ablaze on June 20, 2022.
A resident of the area, Cyprian Igube, disclosed that, before the arrest of Ukwa, the woman alongside some of her children had staged a protest in the herbalist’s house and, in the process, reportedly damaged some of his belongings.
Another resident, Mrs. Virginia Nwobegu, in her version, claimed that the problem was remotely caused by the herbalist’s unbridled promiscuity. She alleged that Ukwa was having amorous affairs with the woman’s daughters but encountered resistance when he began to make similar sexual advances at the woman too.
According to her, when the herbalist could not have his way with the woman, he allegedly decided to hurt her by killing her son through diabolical means.
One of the tenants, a cement dealer, Obinna Akunwata, who lost his goods in the inferno, said: “I was already sleeping around 1am when my phone ran severally but I intentionally ignored the calls because I felt that it was not wise for one to call another at such period of the night.
“It was after the day had dawned when I called back the same line that I got the information and I quickly rushed to the shop and discovered that about 70 bags of my cement had been destroyed by the fire and when I enquired about the cause of the problem, I was directed to find out from my landlord but in all, I thank God as life was not lost.”
Daily Sun gathered that the herbalist’s compound made up of many apartments and shops with all the goods and household assets belonging to tenants were destroyed by the inferno.
Police Public Relations Officer of Ebonyi State Command, Chris Anyanwu, said that the case file had not reached his table at the time of filing this report.
