I’ve been harassed, beaten, now they want me dead, cries 85-year-old widow

Steve Uzoechi, OWERRI

These are clearly not the best of times for Mrs. Jane Igbokwe (85), a widow from Dikenafai in Ideato South council area of Imo State.

In other places, Igbokwe would have been spending her old age in peace, supported and protected by her community. But her present reality tells a different story as she appears to have been abandoned, to fend off ferocious land speculators and influential persons in her community. These persons allegedly covet and are desperately plotting to take over the land left for her by her late husband.

According to the octogenarian, for nearly a decade, she had been harassed, blackmailed, arrested, beaten and had even survived an assassination attempt, all in a bid to forcibly take over her husband’s land.

Igbokwe, who said she had been beaten up several times with her children and other times in the presence of her children, recently survived another onslaught, when more than 12 hoodlums on motorcycles stormed her home on the 25^th of March, 2019, shooting and cutting down everything in sight. The old woman, petrified out of her wits, hid inside her home.

Efforts made by the gunmen to gain entrance into the house possibly to abduct or assassinate the octogenarian, were frustrated by iron protectors. This angered the hoodlums and they resorted to, destroying property, including water tanks and window panes.

Smarting from the shock of the attack, Igbokwe had raised the alarm over the relentless plot to eliminate her and her family in the quest by some vicious land speculators in the community.

One Charles Okereke, a kinsman to the woman was arrested with another man alleged to be his apprentice. They were freed after two days in police custody, while other suspects are said to be at large.

The Divisional Police Officer (DPO) of Ideato South, a Superintendent of Police (SP), told our correspondent that the case was not yet closed. He added that the division had received a directive to transfer the case to the Area Command at Ogboko, in the same council area.

He however assured that it was the responsibility of the Division to give Igbokwe full protection and promised that if the needed intelligence was received, the attackers of Igbokwe would be punished.

Charles Okereke, the suspect in the case, said that he was arrested out of malice, stressing that he knew nothing about the attack on Igbokwe.

His words: “I have been in court with Igbokwe since 2008, which was why they quickly arrested me. The last appeal in the matter was filed in 2017, and it is yet to be heard. I have complained to our traditional ruler. I have also complained to our town union leader and they are all aware of what is happening. I can tell you without fear of contradiction that it is neither me nor my children that attacked and destroyed Igbokwe’s home. They arrested me and some of my wards because my family and her family already had issues.”