Follow Us on Google
From Joseph Obukata, Warri
The husband of 34-year-old Blessing Oghale, the woman who was reportedly beheaded by yet-to-be identified gunmen in a renewed crisis between Igbide and Enhwe communities in Isoko South Council Area of Delta State, has decried the alleged poor manner in which the case was being handled.
Oghale’s husband, Lucky Napoleon Emamuzo, said the death of his wife left a big wound in his life, hence, he was crying out since his wife was hacked to death in his presence.
Emamuzo, in an interview with Daily Sun, said his wife was gruesomely murdered and her face severed from her head by the gunmen who waylaid them on their farm. The gunmen were suspected to be war-mongers from Okpolo-Enhwe, who allegedly launched a surprise attack on Igbide farmers on Thursday, December 23, 2021.
He spoke on the heels of Governor Ifeanyi Okowa’s call on Isoko communities enmeshed in boundary disputes to sheathe their swords and embrace peace for meaningful development.
Emamuzo stated the gunmen ambushed them on their farm on the ill-fated day but he escaped by the whiskers though with injuries. Unfortunately, his wife fell to their bullets and was beheaded.
Emamuzo, who spoke in a telephone interview with Daily Sun, lamented that the incident was causing him and the children his wife left behind nightmares.
He lamented that, since the attack, authorities of Isoko South LGA and the state government were yet to reach out to him or ask about the five children left behind by his deceased wife.
According to him, he had gone to the farm with his wife that fateful day to eke out their daily bread when some men, four in number, waylaid them in the bush.
He said that the four gun-wielding men who powdered their faces to hide their identities opened fire on them from behind.
He explained thus: “Around 8am, I and my wife left our house for the farm, just at the back of the secondary school. Where we went to farm is like three poles from where houses ended in the community. We went there with bike, water, hoe and our weed-spraying equipment. We got there about 8:15am and my wife mixed the chemicals and started spraying while I was clearing with the hoe.
“As we were working, I saw four men coming towards us with guns. They rubbed powder on their faces and tied lack cloth around their head. They were speaking their language, threatening us not to run. It was a language like that of our neighbours. I started going backward, so they started shooting, then I fell down. As I fell, they were coming to hold me but I stood up again and started running. Then they killed my wife.”
According to him, the gunmen used a native language that sounded like that of the neighbouring community to command him and his wife not to run, shouting: “If you move, we shoot.”
His wife was shot at close range and she died from the effect of the pellets, which shattered her skull.
“The gunmen later used cutlass to slice her head into two”, he said in an emotion-laden voice.
“They shot her with gun and not that they held her down. They shot her dead with the gun. Her skull burst out because it was a close range. They were also shooting at me by then. But by the grace of God nothing touched me. That’s what happened.”
He further said: “They cut her skull because you know the effect of the gun pulled her skull forward. So, they used cutlass to dismember her face, which they took along. They didn’t cut her neck but they cut the face into half. It was a gory scene. Even the police DPO reached where they killed my wife. They took pictures of our farm items, Including the spraying tank and chemicals we were using for weeding. They said it was evidence.
“Since that time, I haven’t heard from the police; I haven’t heard from the local government or anybody. We just went there; they did autopsy on her and gave us the body to bury. So, we have since buried her. I didn’t even see the autopsy report because I was not allowed to follow the people who went there.”
The 47-year-old man said, since the incident, life has been very hard for him to take care of the children.
‘”I want the government to assist me. I am a driver but I don’t have a vehicle to drive for now. I am just managing a motorcycle for transport. I used to drive a bus for commercial purposes before. Currently, I can’t even do anything tangible because my arm was dislocated during the attack. I got a dislocated arm when I fell down in the bush while I was being pursued,” he said.
Lamenting that it appeared the murder case had been abandoned, he said, “No arrest in connection to the killing of my wife has been made. The police have not been able to track the killers till now.”
A source who craved anonymity said: “It is worrisome that till now the government is yet to make arrest or issue a statement over the gruesome murder of Mrs. Oghale Napoleon.”
When contacted, the police public relations oficer in the state, DSP Bright Edafe, said it was not true that the police ertr sleeping on the murder case. He said investigation was still going on regarding the case, urging the public to avail the police with any useful information that could lead to the arrest of the perpetrators.
Meanwhile, Gov. Okowa has warned war-mongers to desist from taking lives over land/boundary disputes, saying
no land was worth the life of any individual, and urged Isoko people to embrace peace in honour of late Professor Abednego Ekoko, who was an accomplished boundary scholar.
Gov. Okowa, at the funeral of the late professor at St. Paul’s Anglican Church, Uzere, in Isoko South Local Government Area of the state, said all Isoko people could be united if they hold on to God and extend love and friendship among themselves.
Paying growing tributes to the late professor for his immense contributions to the peaceful resolution of crises in many communities, the governor charged Isoko people to end strife and tread the path of peace in memory of the renowned peacemaker: “As Isoko people, let us honour Ekoko at his death by embracing peace. There are lots of boundary disputes and communal crises in Isoko, which ought not to be.
“In honour of the death of a boundary scholar that worked for peace in many communities, let us stop fighting and live peacefully.”
He counselled the people to eschew bitterness, especially over land matters, saying, “when you fight because of land and for the sake of land destroy lives, those lives you destroy you cannot recreate them when you settle.
“No land is worth the life of anyone and, as leaders and elders, we ought to hand over things that will connote peace and development and not crisis.”
Okowa urged the leadership of Isoko Development Union and the Christian community to organise a collective prayer to rededicate Isokoland to God.
“It is a time for us to examine our faith, a time for self-introspection and reconciliation, and we must realise that it’s only in love the Isoko nation can be built to a greater nation,” Okowa said.
