Tragedy struck at the Military Unit stationed at Ndiolumbe community on the old Aba — Umuahia road in Isiala Ngwa South local council of Abia state as a soldier attached to the unit was burnt to death by a lady he jilted.
247ureports.com gathered that the deceased soldier who is said to be a native of Benue state was in love with a girl whom he promised to marry.
According to a source in the community who pleaded anonymity for fear of attack by soldiers, “We woke up on that fateful day to learn about such an ugly story. The soldier was recently posted to the Army unit here, but the girl is not a native of this community, we were told they have been friends in Aba where the soldier served before being posted here and that the soldier promised to marry her and later abandoned her when she became pregnant.”
The source further lamented that trouble started for the soldier lover boy who was formerly serving at the Army Unit at Ngwa High school, Aba but was transferred to a neighbouring unit stationed at Comprehensive Secondary School, Ndiolumbe when he chose to invite his ex girlfriend to his new station after they were said to have resolved their differences recently.
He did not know that the girl was still harbouring the wounds of their break up and was looking for an opportunity to deal with him.
On that fateful day, said a source who owns a shop beside the school where the soldiers live, the girl and his lover boy soldier were said to have gone to bed, but the latter but did not know that death was lurking behind.
Perhaps, excited at the reunion with her lover, the soldier is believed to have slept off after sometime around midnight and the girl grabbed the opportunity to spray the gallon of fuel she hid in a corner of the room on her man and set him ablaze and disappeared.
Eyewitness accounts hinted that the soldier was badly burnt as nobody within the Principal quarters of the school compound where the military men live knew what was happening until they began to hear shout of help from the dying man.
His colleagues who were alerted at the development immediately came and rushed him to the hospital where he died on the way.
Others were said to have searched the surrounding bushes for the killer girl but she was nowhere to be found.
A cross section of residents at the community market square who spoke to 247ureports.com said they have continued to express gratitude to God as the girl had nothing to do with them.
“We thank God that that girl is not from our community, the Army people would have dealt with us or even burnt our market and buildings. We would have now been refugees by now. Nobody would have been in this market at this time.”
Efforts to confirm the state of the burnt soldier from the Public Relations Officer, 14 Brigade, Ohafia, proved abortive as his phones were switched off, but a source close to the soldiers at the Unit told our correspondent that the soldier has been buried.
