BY AGNES NWORIE, ABAKALIKI
A 65-year-old-widow, Agnes Okorie, native of Amaegu Anike Onicha Igboeze community in Onicha Local Government Area of Ebonyi State, has accused her in-laws of killing her daughter and setting the corpse ablaze.
Okorie further claimed that her late husband’s kinsmen were also responsible for the mysterious death of her six children.
She alleged that some of her in-laws conspired to kill her daughter, Nnennaya Onu-Okorie, aged 35, in their compound.
According to her, Nnennaya was murdered on December 23, last year after which the suspects absconded with one of the ankle-feet of the lady. She alleged that after accomplishing their mission, they set her belongings on fire.
The distrustful mother told the Ebonyi State Family Law Center, Abakaliki, that as a mother of eight, she had five boys and three girls, six of whom died mysteriously leaving her with only two female children.
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.
This, she said, happened despite the fact that traditionally, her husband, as the first child of his 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 daughter were subsequently maltreated by her in-laws and prohibited from harvesting palm fruits from the family plantation.
After her husband’s demise, she explained that the family members barred them from cultivating crops on the family farmland.
She alleged that the family was mean to them because all her male children died.
According to the widow, her husband died after an illness. She said that she was ill at that time too. Okorie said that the extended family accused her and her girls of killing their brother (her husband), 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), caught 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. 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.
In an interview with The Point, the village head, Philip Nwankwo, said that he tried his best to mediate between them in order for the matter not to degenerate into crisis, but the aggrieved parties were unwilling to settle for peace.
When contacted, the Police Public Relations Officer in the state, DSP Loveth Odah, said that the command would do the needful as soon as investigations were concluded on the matter.
