The National Human Rights Commission Ebonyi State chapter has called on the state government for justice for a widow, Mrs. Agnes Onu -Okorie and her deceased daughter allegedly murdered and roasted by the in-laws.
The late Nnenna Onu-Okorie, a native of Amaegu Anike Onicha Igboeze community in Onicha Local Government Area of Ebonyi State was reportedly murdered on December 23, 2021 in their family house by yet to be identified men who also set her and some family properties ablaze as well as made away with one of her ankles.
The coordinator of the Commission in the State Onyekachi Okorie made the call in Abakaliki while enumerating efforts made so far by the commission in the last two years to ensure justice for the duo but all to no avail.
The state coordinator called on the state government led by Governor Francis Nwifuru to secure justice for the dead lady, facilitate rehabilitation of her mother and ensure restoration of the widow’s belongings.
According to the coordinator, the Commission received the complaint on February 10, 2022, wrote to the police on February 18 for investigations and got a reply on February 29 in preparation for travel to the village for possible arrest.
On March 30, the police wrote to the Commission that they had gone to the scene but couldn’t arrest anyone because all the suspects were all at large.
However he lamented that despite the meeting organized by the Commission on April 1, 2022 for some traditional rulers of the area, the LGA chairman, the Development Center coordinator and Divisional police officer of the area for the way forward, the matter seemed to have been swept under the carpet.
He demanded that the government facilitate the following for the family for the sake of equity and justice: “There are three major issues that are now involved. The first is justice for the roasted victim late miss Nnenna Onu by arresting and prosecuting the perpetrators. “Second is the rehabilitation of the traumatized, poor, aged mother who has been out of her home since 2021. She needs to be allowed to go back to her home. She needs to start cultivating the land her husband bequeathed to her and reaping the fruits from her economic trees.
“The third part of the issue is security to be guaranteed and assured that nobody will ever molest her because as a citizen of Nigeria she has the right to live in her home. There is a need for the government to make all these provisions available for her because that is actually the duty of the government. The National Human Rights Commission has tried since 2021 to bring the state government to do the needful. We still hope that the new government in Ebonyi State will take this matter up, reinstate and rehabilitate her in her home, while urging the police to resurrect the matter and see that justice is done and done speedily as it ought to have been.”
The 67-year-old widow, Agnes Onu- Okorie and her only surviving child Mrs. Juliet Onu-Okorie, had accused her in-laws of killing her daughter and setting the corpse ablaze alongside their properties, also responsible for the mysterious death of her five boys and one girl, six of whom died mysteriously leaving her with only two female children.
According to them, the suspects absconded with one of the ankle-feet of the murdered lady, after accomplishing their mission.
She said that following the death of her male children, her husband’s kinsmen, led by Okoro Nwaokorie (now late), maltreated them, causing her husband to pack out of the family house to build his own house, despite the fact that traditionally, her husband, as the first child of their parents, had the right to inherit his father’s assets as the first son of the family.
Okorie stated that the estranged kinsmen compelled her husband to get a second wife, a development that set her on a warpath with him.
She said that at a point, the man indulged in beating her and her daughters at the slightest provocation, adding that she and her daughters were subsequently maltreated by her in-laws and prohibited her from harvesting palm fruits from the family plantation.
After her husband’s death, she explained that the family members barred them from cultivating crops on the family farmland because she has no surviving male child.
According to the widow, her husband died after an illness.
She said that she was ill at that time too, the extended family accused her and her girls of killing their brother (her husband), and so they excommunicated them and secretly fixed his burial date against their consent and knowledge.
Five days to her husband’s burial, the woman claimed that her deceased daughter (Nnennaya), got wind of the plan and dragged the kindred to the National Human Rights Commission, Abakaliki and the Ebonyi State Family Law Center for planning to bury the man without their knowledge and consent because they are females.
The two bodies mediated and directed them to stop the plan.
Okorie said that her husband’s kindred felt embarrassed by her late daughter’s action whom they described as ‘a little girl of yesterday,’ consequent upon which she was threatened.
The young woman died shortly after the encounter with the aggrieved family members.
In November 2021, the widow and her girls were also accused of killing one of her stepsons, Okoro Nwaokorie, through diabolical means.
In the midnight of December 23, 2021, late Nnennaya Onu was allegedly attacked, killed and set on fire alongside their properties as their sick mother travelled to Abakaliki to receive medical care.
The widow demanded justice in respect of her daughter’s killing.
She appealed to governments at all levels, corporate bodies and well-meaning Nigerians to intervene by securing justice for her, saying that she could not afford the services of a lawyer.
