It was wailing galore in Umuodiri-Umunumo Umuchoke Autonomous Community, Ehime Mbano Local Government Area of Imo when a young palm wine tapper, Mr. Emmanuel Njoku shot and killed his brother.
According to village sources, the victim, Mr. Joseph Njoku, whose wife put to bed a bouncing baby boy penultimate week, was killed by his elder brother over missing money and family feud.
It was gathered that trouble started when the alleged killer, Emmanuel, returned from sales of his palm wine and discovered that part of his money was missing from where he kept it.
Emmanuel, who thought his brother had used the money to pay for a consignment of iron and steel which he just bought for the ongoing construction of his new house, became enraged.
He was said to have pulled a gun, ambushed his brother and shot him dead.
It was learnt that before the incident happened, Emmanuel had been unhappy with his younger brother and his mother, Mrs. Gladys Njoku for making him lose his portion of land to Joseph, who had started erecting building on it.
Emmanuel, who recently lost his only son, also accused his brother and mother of using diabolical means to eliminate the boy in order to allow Joseph take over his inheritance as the first son.
After killing his brother, the assailant, according to village sources, ran straight to the Ehime Mbano Police Division and surrendered himself with his gun to the police.
Meanwhile, the alleged killer, Emmanuel, has been moved to homicide department of the state police headquarters, Owerri, for further investigations, while the remains of late Joseph have been deposited to the mortuary.
All efforts made to reach the state police public relations officer, Mrs Joy Elemoko(DSP) for reaction proved abortive as phone line was not available as the the time of filing this report.
