A mother of four has cried out over the murder of her husband, Samuel Okere, after suspected gunmen shot him and kidnapped a businessman, Sunny Onuenze, within an estate located in the Army range axis of IgboEtche in Etche Local Government Area (LGA), Rivers State.
The grieving wife, Mrs. Peace Ulaku Samuel, narrated that the ugly incident that took the life of her husband occurred on October 26.
She said her late husband, a native of the Ofeh community in Omuma Local Government Area of Rivers State, is a generator repairer, while the kidnapped victim, Mr. Onuenze, is a metal scrap dealer in the Mile building material market.
During an interview with the grieving wife, she said her late husband went out to take a stroll around his neighborhood on Saturday night.
She said, “He came back, and I told him to pump water at about 7 p.m. It was getting dark a bit. After pumping water, he put off the generator. Without wearing clothes, he told me to let him just walk around. He told one of the kids to put water for him in the bathroom that he was coming.
“So it is not up to five minutes when I heard a gunshot. It was not even in our street, but the next street. I heard another gunshot. I told my children, let us go inside. Maybe your daddy is hiding wherever he is because of the gunshot. Let us enter inside. He will come back.”
According to her, immediately she pulled a call through to her husband for over six times, and there were no responses.
She said, “My own thought was that he doesn’t want to pick as he is hiding so that nobody will hear him.”
Furthermore, she heard that her neighbour was also kidnapped during the attack. She said, “So later, I heard they kidnapped one of our neighbours. Later everybody started coming out, all the landlords. I came out again; I did not see my husband.
“So I started telling them I had not seen my husband. Everybody said he would come back. The woman whose husband was kidnapped was crying that they had kidnapped her husband.
”After past 12 am, due to security reasons, one of the landlords asked her to go inside, stating that her husband would be back in the morning.
“When I entered, it was not up to an hour. I heard a dog backing seriously, our neighbour’s dog. I thought he was coming back. On second thought, I said who knows whether this man is still alive and whether they want to bring his corpse into his house and run away. I peered through the window to see if it was my husband; I did not see him and went back to the room.
She said at around 5 a.m., she woke her younger sister to go search for her husband, who was yet to return home.
“Let’s go and look for your daddy,” she said.
After searching close to their house and her husband was not found, they went on to the next plot of land used for farming, and they saw the deceased lying lifeless.
“That is how we saw the corpse,” she lamented.
Noting their efforts in contacting the security operatives in the LGA close to them, she said, “That night Igwuruta Police Division came and now noticed that our side is under Etche division, which they said is under Etche. I don’t know really if Etche Division came later. “
Meanwhile, the incident was said to be reported to the Umuebule Police Division in IgboEtche in charge of the area, and the deceased corpse has been taken to an undisclosed mortuary in his community, Omuma LGA.
Also, it was gathered that the alleged kidnappers had contacted the family of Onuenze.
As of press time, the Rivers State Police Command spokesperson, Grace Iringe-Koko was yet to respond to the SMS and WhatsApp messages sent in by this reporter.
By Helen Okechukwu