Man, 24, stabs Okada rider to death in Ebonyi

BY PETER OKUTU
ABAKALIKI —  A 24-year-old man,  Chukwu Okpara,  weekend, allegedly stabbed to death an Okada rider, Mr. Ogbonnia Azubuike, 33, following a disagreement over the use of a phone charger in phone booth at Amaizu community, Afikpo North Local Government Area of Ebonyi State.

Vanguard gathered that although the suspect had taken to his heels, the development prompted the people to embark on mass departure from the troubled area for fear of any reprisal attack by the neighbouring communities and to avoid being victims of police arrest of suspected accomplices.

Narrating her ordeal, wife of the deceased and a hair stylist, Mrs. Victoria Ogbonnia Azubuike who said she was short of words when she received news about her husband’s death lamented that if she had the premonition that her husband would die that night, she wouldn’t have allowed him out of the house.

According her, “when I received news of my husband’s death I was extremely shocked because we just finished dinner together when somebody phoned him and said he should come and pick him with his motorbike.”

“So, when he left the house, I slept off while expecting him to return home. Suddenly, I got a report from someone who claimed that he had an accident and died before he was rushed to the hospital”

Mrs Azubuike who described her husband as a peace-loving man called on the security agents in Afikpo North LGA of the state to arrest her husband’s killer as the menace of cultism had over the years led to the surging wave of crimes and criminality in the LGA.

She called on the state government and authorities of the LGA to assist her in the upbringing of her two little children.

Confirming the incident, Chairman of Afikpo North LGA, Pharmacist Tony Ekoh Jnr said he had appealed to the people of the area to remain calm and not to embark on reprisal attack as messages had been sent out to relevant authorities to ensure the arrest of the suspect without delay.

Meantime, the Ebonyi state Public Relations Officer, DSP Sylvester Igbo said the command was not aware of any murder in the area at the weekend.