BY AGNES NWORIE, ABAKALIKI
A young man of about 25 years, popularly known as Trigger, has been electrocuted to death during an attempt to steal birds from a poultry farm in Abakaliki, Ebonyi State capital.
The deceased, a motor mechanic apprentice, whose real name was Friday Nwore-Nwitoshi, recently met his waterloo at a poultry farm belonging to one Mrs. Rosemary Chikwere-Uduagha, at Ukwuakparata axis of Onuebonyi Inyimagu Community in Abakaliki Local Government Area of the state.
It was gathered that the deceased went to evacuate chicks recently stocked by Chikwere-Uduagha in her backyard poultry but ran short of luck as he encountered a conduit wiring connecting the woman’s house and the farm and thereby died of electric shock.
Speaking with The Point, Chikwere-Uduagha, a civil servant and petty farmer, said she woke up that particular morning without being apprehensive of any unpleasant incident but unexpectedly, as she went to her farm to feed the birds, she saw the man’s lifeless body beside her poultry.
“I woke up and moved towards my farm but to my greatest surprise, I saw the man lying motionless, and upon my findings, I discovered that the person was shocked to death by the conduit wire that is connecting my apartment and the farm. It was while trying to steal a great number of chicks which I brought recently into the farm that he met his death,” she said.
One Mr. Ali Toochukwu, who identified the deceased as Trigger, claimed that he was an indigene of Ndiegu Echara in Ikwo Local Government Area of the state and was among the miscreants who had been stealing from unsuspecting members of the public in his neighbourhood.
“Trigger and members of his group had stolen from too many shops and houses in our area. They had also disposed many commercial cyclists of their motorcycles. It was as a result of his unpleasant attitude that he left motor mechanic apprenticeship before encountering this wire that shocked him to death,” Ali claimed.
As of the time of filing this report, men of the Nigeria Police Force from the Central Police Station, Abakaliki, had been contacted over the incident and the victim’s lifeless body had been deposited at Alex Ekwueme Federal University Teaching Hospital Abakaliki (AEFUTHA 2) morgue.
Recall that the prices of poultry products in Abakaliki, especially chicken, had skyrocketed in recent time as a day old chick is sold for between N800 and N1000, depending on the species, as against N200/N350 it went for last year.
