Fear reigns in the entire community of Ibiasoegbe in Oru West Local Government Area of Imo State, following the gruesome murder of a 66 year-old woman, identified as Mrs. Josephine Okorie, in her farm last Monday.
Late Mrs. Okorie was a church warden at St. Paul’s Catholic Church, Ibiasoegbe.
This is even as the people of Umuakaje Umuseke, Okwudor community in Njaba Local Government Area of the State were thrown into mourning and confusion last Thursday following the killing of one of their daughters, 28 year-old Mrs. Chikodi Nzerem by rampaging baby snatchers, who also snatched her three-month old baby boy from her.
The attackers of Mrs. Okorie apparently laid ambush and matcheted and slit the woman’s throat, before cutting her head.
According to Mr. Monday Okorie, son of the deceased, the ritualists were about to go away with the decapitated head when they heard the voice of another woman, who was coming along the bush path, and abandoned both the woman’s head and the body.
He said it was the woman who raised the alarm that attracted other farmers, who came after the attackers had escaped.
In a similar development, a nursing mother of a four month-old baby boy in Okwuudor in Njaba LGA of the state, Mrs. Chikodi Nzerem, has been murdered by baby snatchers in her own father’s house.
Late Mrs. Nzerem, until her death, was selling banana and cashew nuts at Okwudor Junction.
According to the younger sister of the deceased, Miss Chidimma Ibekwe, Mrs. Nzerem, a widow and mother of three, was killed by one Mr. Chidi (alias Gwobia), for refusing to let go of the child.
The about 40 year-old suspect, it was learnt, operated a car wash centre at the Imo State University Teaching Hospital (IMSUTH) Junction, along old Owerri Road, Owerre Ebeiri in Orlu local government area of the state.
He was said to have immediately sold the baby to a Yoruba woman.
According to Chidimma, the suspect had been approaching her late sister for marriage since the death of her husband two years ago, but the deceased and her parents refused the offer.
She said however that Chidi succeeded in getting the deceased pregnant and yet the family rebuffed all his efforts to take care of her pregnancy and decided to pay the hospital bills after delivery.
Delivered of the baby, the suspect had been threatening to take back the baby dead or alive.
Chidimma expressed shock at coming out early morning Thursday to see her sister lying in the pool of her own blood.
