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 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.
Culled from Punch
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