A commercial motorcyclist, identified simply as Ifeanyi, has been
arrested for allegedly handing over a nurse, Mrs. Helen Ilonge
(picture above), to ritual killers after collecting
N10, 000.
Punch Metro learnt that Ilonge had on Tuesday last week took Ifeanyi's
motorcycle on her way to Igoli along the Ogoja-Ikom Highway in Ogoja
LGA.
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 breast and vagina 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 no 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.
Culled from Punch
