MURDERED BY VIGILANTE BOYS · Sad end of a young man killed by his kinsmen

By SUNDAY ANI (NICHSUNNY@YAHOO.COM)

The family of Sylvanus Agbo from Umunkaka Amukwa Ihe in Nsukka Local Government Area of Enugu State is currently grieving over the gruesome murder of their 29-year-old son, Ndubuisi. Mr Agbo, who is hypertensive, regretted that his son’s brutal murder had aggravated his poor health condition, even as he pointedly accused the village vigilance group of complicity in the crime.

Events that led to Ndubuisi’s gruesome murder on September 18, 2013, according to his father, started on September 1, around 8pm along Orba Road, a stone’s throw from their compound. The young man was said have run into the vigilante boys on his way home after he closed for the day’s business at his Ikpa market. He was said to have stopped over at a near-by beer palour to drink a bottle of beer after which he continued his homeward journey on his motorcycle. He was stopped by three members of a vigilance group and promptly arrested for moving at late hour. The bar owner where Ndubuisi branched on his way, according to the distraught father, had gone to confront members of the vigilance group and reminded them that it was still past 8pm and that other people were still moving around. It was gathered that they told him that Ndubuisi was their brother and that he should leave them as they knew how best to handle the matter.

When the bar owner left, Daily Sun gathered, the vigilante boys started beating Ndubuisi, who in order to save his life, escaped. Unfortunately, he ran into the house of one man simply identified as Chikwado, who rather than gave him cover, gave him away.

According to Agbo, “The man gave him away to his tormentors but his mother intervened and opened the back door for my son to escape. He escaped through the back door and they came to the road leading to my house to lay ambush on him. When he got there, they attacked him again and he started fighting with them. He escaped again but almost instantly stumbled over a big stone and fell. They got him again and started beating him to a point that they felt he was dead. They called somebody to come with a car that the idiot was dead. So, when my son heard that, he rose up and escaped to the plantain plantation at the back of my house,” Mr Agbo narrated.

Drama at his house

Ndubuisi’s third escape from the vigilante’s three musketeers never dampened their determination to fish him out and deal with him as they traced him to his father’s compound. Mr Agbo continued: “When they couldn’t get him, they came to my house at about 10:56pm and started knocking at my door. I asked them why they woke me up at that time and they told me that they had tried to arrest my son on three occasions that night but he escaped on each occasion. I asked them what he did that they wanted to arrest him but they didn’t tell me anything. By then, they had seized his motorcycle. As I was talking with them, my son emerged from the back of my house and dropped N15, 000 on top of my table and told me that it was that money they wanted to snatch from him. He then went outside to engage them in a fight; he threw one of them on the ground.

“That time, my wife had grabbed the one with a gun and asked him to kill her instead of Ndubuisi since they wouldn’t tell us what he did that they so desperately wanted to arrest him that night. As they were fighting, I called Ndubuisiu’s younger brother, Chukwuebuka to separate them because I couldn’t do that due to my age. When Chukwuebuka separated them, he asked them what Ndubuisi did but nobody provided any answer. He then asked his brother about his motorcycle and he told him that they had seized it from him. The younger one, Chukwuebuka then went to get the bike and on getting there, one of them even slapped him but he didn’t retaliate. He collected the bike and brought it back.

“Later, we discovered that one of them forgot his handset in my house during the scuffle. Ndubuisi seized the handset and insisted that unless they replaced his T-shirt which they tore to shred when they were beating him that night, he would not release the handset.”

Visit to vigilante executive members

Ndubuisi could not understand why his own people in his own village, would want to deal with him so desperately. So, the next day according to his father, he approached one of the executive members of the vigilance group, Godwin Atta, who advised him to lay the complaint officially before the general executive meeting at the Umunkaka Civic Centre where they meet every Wednesday.

“When he went there, they asked him to bring his father and some kola nuts before they would listen to him. He promised to meet the condition in their next sitting. So, the next Wednesday, I went with him to meet them. We presented four kola nuts to them and laid our complaint. Meanwhile the three persons that had issues with him had also laid their complaints. I asked them what time it was when they first arrested my son and they said it was about 2am. I asked them if it was possible for people to be still drinking at the beer palour by 2am in our village but nobody answered me. I also asked Chikwado what time it was when my son ran into his house for refuge and he said he didn’t look at the time. I then told everybody that they came to my house at exactly 10:56pm. I told them that since they could not tell me what my son did to them, I could only conclude that somebody might have paid them to kill him. But I reminded them that he was their brother and asked them to resolve the matter however it pleased them. They promised to communicate to me whatever their decision was,” he stated.

But before the next sitting when Mr Agbo would be told what the decision of the executive was, pressure had been mounted on him to get the handset from his son to avoid further problem. That, he said he did through the help of Ndubuisi’s younger brother, Chukwuebuka who prevailed on him to surrender the handset with a promise that his T-shirt would be replaced.  “But, on Wednesday, September 18, Ndubuisi came back from work and without my knowledge, went straight to the Umunkaka Civic Centre where the vigilante executive members were meeting to ask them the outcome of the case he brought before them. They seized his motorcycle and accused him of coming into their midst uninvited. He came back to report that they had seized his motorcycle and I asked him to relax so that the next day, I would get it from them but he refused. He insisted that they could not tear his cloth, seize the handset he wanted to exchange for his cloth and at the same time seize his motorcycle. He rushed out and his mother and younger brother followed him and that was all I know about Ndubuisi. The next thing I heard was that Ndubuisi had been shot dead. His mother and brother took him to hospital and they were referred to Shonahan hospital and when they got there, they were asked to get the police report. And before they could get the police report and take him back to Shonahan hospital, Ndubuisi had died,” he narrated.

Chukwuebuka’s account

Ndubuisi’s younger brother, Chukwuebuka was with him on September 18, when one of the vigilante boys shot him. Narrating how Ndubuisi was killed, he said: “I was with him on that day. When he went back to get his motorcycle, I followed him alongside my mother. When we got there, one of them, Augustine said he would not take the motorcycle because it had no registration number and that he wasn’t sure if the motorcycle was my brother’s own because he didn’t understand his means of livelihood. I told them that they had no right to ask for the purchase paper of the motorcycle because they were neither Road Safety agency nor the Police authorities to be asking whether the motorcycle was registered or not. I even volunteered to call my younger brother, Chibuogu, who was at home to bring the purchase paper of the motorcycle because I knew where it was kept then.  We insisted that we must go with the motorcycle that night but as the argument became hot, they started beating my brother massively. They were four but only three of them had guns. They are Augustine, Chikwado, Chinwe and Innocent. As they were beating him, he ran out from the hall to the main road and the executive members, who included Godwin Atta and his colleagues, were urging the boys to kill him because he was stubborn. So, as we came out on the main road, one of them, Innocent shot him on the stomach and all of them ran away including the executive members. So, my mother and I arranged to take him to hospital but before we could get the police report to enable the hospital attend to him, he died.”

Vigilance group's defence

Efforts to get three out of the four executive members who attended the September 18, meeting proved abortive. However, one of the executive member, Godwin, blamed Ndubuisi’s mother for his death. He alleged that the deceased mother encouraged him to fight the vigilante boys. He dismissed the allegation that Ndubuisi was deliberately shot as he attributed what happened to accidental discharge. He also denied that Ndubuisi reported his problem with the vigilante boys to him before taking it to the executive members at the Umunkaka Civic Centre. He said he only attended their weekly meeting and saw Ndubuisi and his younger brother there and on enquiry, he was told why they were there.

In his own narration, he said: “It’s unfortunate that I am a member of the executive of that vigilante group. The Ndubuisi Agbo of a boy actually came home late that very September 1, and he was arrested. He was asked to park his motorcycle at Chikwado Ezeugwu’s compound and Chikwado’s mother asked him to escape through the backyard so that he could come back for his motorcycle the next day. He did as he was advised but his mother and younger brother went back that night to take the motorcycle, thereby disobeying the vigilante boys. But, as he came out to go home that night, he ran into the boys again and they started fighting again. They pursued him to his father’s house and when they got there and were reporting to his father what had transpired, his mother came out and grabbed one of the boys who had a gun. At that point, Ndubuisi emerged from hiding and gave a heavy punch to the man his mother was holding tight and the guy fell. The boy’s phone fell that night too as he bled through the nose. The vigilante boys later went to report the incident to the chairman and the secretary. Nobody reported anything to me and they were asked to go and treat the wounded boy first. Later, the same Ndubuisi went to report to the chairman and secretary, without anybody consulting me. Ndubuisi’s family didn’t come to me and the chairman and the secretary never told me anything about the matter. So, on that fateful Wednesday, I was just going for the normal meeting but on getting there, I saw Ndubuisi and Chibuzo and I asked Chibuzo why they were there and he said his brother, Ndubuisi was having problem with the vigilante boys. When the chairman came, he told him that without his father, his case would not be treated. I even told them that since Chibuzo was there and I was also there, he should be heard but the chairman stood his ground. So, in our next sitting, he and his father came with some kola nuts as requested by the chairman. We invited only the father and Ndubuisi but at the middle of that discussion, Ndubuisi’s mother came in uninvited and there was trouble. She was just beating people like no man’s business and we asked them to go so that we could go for investigation.”

But on what led to his death, he said: “On that Wednesday, September 18, he came with his mother and we asked them to go but they refused. As we were arguing, his younger brother came in and we told him what we had told Ndubuisi. That one asked him to listen to us but he instead engaged his younger brother in a fight. He threw him on the ground and was beating him and that one was shouting for help. Their mother could not separate them; so she asked for assistance and that was when those vigilante boys went to assist. So, in the process of separating Ndubuisi and his younger brother, Ndubuisi left his brother and attacked the vigilante boy who had gun. The other two vigilante boys joined their colleague to beat him. They started fighting from the Civic Centre to the main road and as Ndubuisi went for the man with gun again, they struggled over the gun and it discharged accidentally and got Ndubuisi.

“So, the thing there is that his mother killed him because if not for his mother who was always supporting him in whatever he did, he could have been alive today. If it were his father that came that day, Ndubuisi could have been alive because he could have taken him home when he was told to go. But his mother supported him not to go and she was fighting everybody and Ndubuisi was also fighting everybody.”

But, is it true that when Ndubuisi was shot, instead of arranging to take him to the hospital, they all took to their heels? He answered: “When the gun discharged accidentally, everybody disappeared.”

The trio of Chikwado, Chinwe and Innocent, who are the principal suspect in the murder, are currently being detained at the State Police Headquarters, Enugu and all efforts to speak with them were in vain.

However, the Enugu State Police Public Relations Officer, Ebere Amaraizu, could not comment on the phone because several attempts to get him on phone failed as network were always faulty. But, replying the text message sent to him to confirm the state of the case and whether the accused persons were still being held at the police headquarters, he said: “Bros, the case you are talking about is being handled by the command.”