Kidnapping: Revenge mission backfires

In what could be termed a revenge mission backfiring, a middle-aged man yesterday reportedly shot dead his brother’s wife and the son over alleged kidnap of a girl in Ikem, Imo State. Ikem, a sleepy village in Amala Autonomous community in Ngor/Okpala Local Government Area, was thrown into confusion when Mr. Mbadiwe Onwukwe allegedly shot dead the woman and the son.

He handed himself over to the police. The state police spokesman, Mr. Vitalis Onugu, confirmed the incident, but said that he did not have details of what had actually happened. The traditional ruler of the community, Eze Ben Nwankwo, told our correspondent that Mr. Onwukwe allegedly killed Ikemba and his mother when they attempted to attack him with a machete.

The monarch narrated that trouble started when the late Ikemba, son of Beatrice, who was said to have allegedly abducted the girl and held her hostage in the family house for five days, and on noticing that Onwukwe (uncle to the deceased) had reported the incident to my palace because they all lived in the same family compound.

The Eze said: “The incident of kidnapping was reported to my palace by Mr. Onwukwe, who is an uncle to the late Ikemba because they lived in the same family compound and on getting the report, I quickly dispatched the securitymen in the community to rescue the lady and to bring her to the palace”. The traditional ruler said that when the late Ikemba got wind of what happened that the victim had been freed and now in his palace, he became very angry and threatened to deal with his uncle for exposing him.

It was with the anger that the late Ikemba took his machete and headed for Onwukwe’s house to kill him, but unfortunately, Onwukwe, having seen him coming from afar with a machete, shot him (Ikemba) dead before he had any chance of causing him any harm.

The late Beatrice on hearing of the killing, also armed herself with a machete and headed for the house of Mr. Onwukwe, ostensibly to avenge the death of her son, Ikemba. It was gathered that before heading for Mr Onwukwe, she had attacked his (Onwukwe’s younger sister) with a machete which missed her by the whiskers before going for Mr. Onwukwe, who also shot her dead on sight.