By Okey Maduforo, Awka
There is a growing tension in Ifite community of Ogbunike Town, Oyi Local Government Area of Anambra State over the reported burial of a woman’s corpse in another man’s compound.
This is coming as a sixty-seven-year-old man, Pa Peter Nweke Ofodum, raises alarm over alleged threat to his life and that of his wife by his cousins, who he said are laying claims to his land.
The tension is becoming the climax of a dispute between Ofodum, the acclaimed owner of the compound, and his cousins who are reportedly being harboured in his house due to accommodation challenges .
It was gathered that, upon the death of one of the wives of Ofodum’s cousins, they insisted that the woman will be buried in the compound while their home is located at Abagana, Njikoka Local Government Area.
Amidst these contentions, heavily-armed thugs, numbering over fifty, stormed the Ogbunike compound and buried the late woman despite the pending matter at the Otuocha High Court, and the order by Zone 13 Police Command that they should stay action on the funeral.
According to a petition filed at the Zone 13 Police Command by the Ifite Welfare Association (IWA), signed by the Chairman, Mr. John Obi, and the Secretary, Mr. Chukwudi Mbaneme, the action is posing security risks to peace and well-being of the community.
“It has come to our knowledge that one Mr. Chinedu and Mr. Christopher Okaka from Umudum Obinagu Abagana planned to bury their dead at the family house of one Mr Nweke Ofodum at Ifite Village Ogbunike.
“Also that we received message of Police intervention in this issue on the proposed day of the funeral, being 28th May 2024.
“This action is posing security risks to peace and well-being of the community.
“We found out that the matter is before the High Court 1 Otuocha, with Suit No OT/ 200/19. Sir by this development we seek for your timely intervention to stop breakdown of Law and Order which will affect our peace loving Community,” the petition partly read.
Speaking to reporters in Awka, Pa Ofodum lamented that after the burial, the suspected hoodlums came at night, shooting sporadically, asking him to come out and fight them .
“It was at the night and they were shooting guns anyhow, asking me to come out and fight them, and I had to call the Zone 13 Police Command to tell them what was going on that night, and I also called the Leadership of the town and reported the matter.
“This set of people had stormed my house with guns and shot my wife on the leg, and, had it been that they saw me, they would have killed me,” he said.
When contacted, the Chairman of the village confirmed the threat to peace in the community and also confirmed that they wrote to Zone 13 Police Command about the burial, yet, they went ahead to bury the woman.
“Presently, we are suing for peace and the plaintiff have come to me for settlement, and we are going to speak with the Peter Nweke Ofodum family, and all that we want to do is to avert crisis in our community and we have told those who went to Court to withdraw the suit first, then, we can take it from there,” he said.
