A
commercial motorcyclist, identified simply as Ifeanyi, has been arrested for
allegedly handing over a nurse, Mrs. Helen Ilonge, to ritual killers after
collecting N10, 000. It was gathered that the nurse Mrs. Ilonge had on Tuesday
last week took Ifeanyi’s motorcycle on her way to Igoli along the Ogoja-Ikom
Highway in Ogoja LGA, Rivers State Nigeria. Ilonge, the coordinator of Primary
Health Care in Bekwarra Local Government Area of Cross River State, was coming
from a programme at the Assemblies of God Church, Abakaliki in Ebonyi State,
and had alighted from a vehicle at Okpongrinya junction before taking the bike.
It was gathered that Ilonge (51) was beheaded while her other vital
reproductive parts such as bosom and womanliness were removed for ritual
purposes. Ilonge’s neighbour, Mrs. Theresa Idagwu, on Sunday said, “Ifeanyi
took the lady from Okpogrinya Junction on the pretence that he was taking her
to the village, which is 10 minutes drive from the point. But along the way, he
stopped and handed her over to kidnappers at Ukpe. Meanwhile, the woman had
called her daughter, Victoria, around 9pm that she had taken a bike at
Okpogrinya Junction on her way to Igoli. She said when she gets to her
destination; she would call again so that Victoria would boil water for her to
take her bath. That was Ilonge’s last call.” Repeated calls made to the woman’s
line, according to Idagwu, indicated that it was switched off. She said
Ilonge’s family became worried when the woman did not return home. “We went
everywhere- police stations, hospitals and even her friends in Igoli, thinking
that may be an accident had occurred along the road but we got nothing,” Idagwu
added. Two days later, Idagwu said someone called Victoria on her phone and
informed her that her mother had been kidnapped. The caller demanded a ransom
of N50, 000 to be remitted in form of recharge cards. She said, “Since her
daughter could not raise the money, she rushed to the Bekwarra LGA headquarters
where the head of administration, Mr. Bisong Bogbo, and the chairman, Mr. Linus
Edeh, provided the money with which she bought recharge cards and sent to the
caller. “The voice claimed that he needed the recharge cards so he could sell
and run away from his master who is a ritual killer. He claimed that he had
been serving his master for a long time and wanted to run away. He said once he
gets the cards, he will break the door where the nurse is being kept and
release her.” The LGA’s head of administration, Bogbo, confirmed that the cards
were sent to the kidnapper through Victoria’s telephone. He said immediately
the alleged kidnapper confirmed receipt of the cards; he switched off his
telephone. Luck, however, ran out of Ifeanyi. Policemen tracked his telephone
line and discovered that he called Victoria from Abuochiche. Further
investigations, it was gathered, showed that Ifeanyi had been selling the cards
in the village immediately he got them. When he was arrested, Bogbo told our
correspondent that Ifeanyi led the police to one of the ritual killers
identified simply as Elvis. Elvis, according to Bogbo, confessed that the nurse
had already been killed and some of her vital organs removed before Ifeanyi
asked for the recharge cards. Elvis also said the remains of the woman were
buried in a swamp. At the council headquarters, one of the late nurse’s
colleagues, Mr. Gabriel Ogar, said she was probably the kindest woman he ever
worked with. Ogar said, “I have worked with five coordinators, but I know that
she is just the best so far. She worked to the admiration of Governor Liyel
Imoke and now she has been killed leaving her five children without a helper. “Her
husband died 12 years ago and since then she has been the one taking care of
the children and only one has graduated. Please let the government do something
for those poor children.” When contacted on Monday, the state Commissioner of
Police, Mr. Osita Ezechukwu, said the police were still investigating the
matter. He said four suspects had been apprehended by the anti-homicide unit,
adding that when the investigation was completed the suspects would be
prosecuted. “We have taken confessional statement from them. Those who are not
involved have been allowed to go while those who are involved are still in
detention,” Ezechukwu said.
