Lately, incessant killing and maiming of persons have become rampant in some communities in the Ohaji/Egbema Local Government Area of Imo State. However, the crime rate in Awarra, a suburban community in the area, close to neighbouring Omoku in River State, has become worse.
In this community, cult groups operate freely, killing and maiming their victims at will.
It was, therefore, no surprise when, recently, the police arrested an 18-year-old secondary school leaver resident in the community, John Egbelu, over the alleged killing of a commercial bus driver, Friday Eluwa, who he and his accomplices, still at large, also buried secretly in a farm.
Egbelu and his fleeing accomplices, said to belong to one of the cult groups operating in the area, The Icelanders, allegedly waylaid Eluwa along the lonely road leading to the farm, stoned him to death, buried him on the road and took away his vehicle.
Egbelu, who claimed to be earning a living as a cart pusher in Owerri, the Imo State capital, was later arrested by the police for stealing a sound amplifier from the New Life Baptist Church in Awarra. It was gathered that, during interrogation, he also confessed to the police to have taken part in the killing and burying of the 24-year-old driver in a shallow grave around the farm.
He was also said to have told the police that they took the murdered driver’s stolen vehicle to Elele in Rivers State, where they had been using it for commercial transportation.
It was a gory sight. The body was fast decaying, with very putrid odour oozing out of it and green flies buzzing around the area immediately the police opened the shallow grave to exhume the remains of the victim. They (suspects) hurriedly buried the driver in a shallow grave after they had killed him. Such a thing has never happened in this community
An eyewitness said that the sober-looking teenager was escorted to the farm by an armed police team to exhume the decaying body of the murdered driver.
“It was a gory sight. The body was fast decaying, with very putrid odour oozing out of it and green flies buzzing around the area immediately the police opened the shallow grave to exhume the remains of the victim. They (suspects) hurriedly buried the driver in a shallow grave after they had killed him. Such a thing has never happened in this community, although all these cult boys always kill and maim people. None of them had been bold enough to have the audacity to kill and bury their victims themselves,” a resident, who pleaded anonymity said.
The exhumed remains of the victim were then put in a casket the police brought to the scene of the crime.
The state Police Public Relations Officer, ASP Andrew Enwerrem, who was also at the scene of the crime, explained that the suspect had confessed to taking part in the killing and burying of the commercial bus operator.
Another resident of the community, Mr. Chukuwdi Emezim, said that the killing of innocent persons by cult groups had reached an alarming stage.
An elder in the community, Chief Paul Onuka, promised that the people would assist the security agencies to flush out the bad eggs in the society, especially now that Christmas is fast approaching, “so that our sons and daughters returning home for the ceremony will come and go unharmed. We have assured them and promised that these bad boys will flee this community by force, because we don’t want bad things anymore.”
The state Commissioner of Police, Chris Ezike, pledged that the police would do everything within its powers to stamp out crime, especially cultism, in every part of the state.
Ezike expressed regret that Awarra had become notorious for such crimes, adding that the police would focus its attention on the community with the aim of checking the rising crime wave in the area.
He promised to mount surveillance throughout the community to safeguard the lives and property of the residents, urging the youths to eschew crime and cooperate with the police to combat crime.
The state police boss also called on the elders of the community, especially the traditional rulers of Awarra, Ochia, Assa and Obile to assist security agents sent to the area by volunteering information on the activities of criminals in the area.
