Aloysius Attah, Onitsha
Tragedy struck in Obosi community, Anambra State, last night, as gunmen suspected to be hired assassins stormed Umuota village and murdered husband and wife in their home after they have retired to bed.
The couple identified as Mr. and Mrs. Charles Ifekandu, lived few metres away from the palace of the traditional ruler, Igwe Chidubem Iweka (Eze Obosi).
Sources told Daily Sun that the couple had taken dinner and slept off, unsuspicious of any danger when the gunmen broke into the compound and shot them dead without touching any household property or hurting any other person living within the vicinity.
Though no one could say for sure, now, what might have caused the killing, an Obosi indigene, who pleaded anonymity, told the reporter that there has been an existing family feud which has lingered, leading to the relocation of the couple to their present abode, away from the family compound.
“I am aware that there have been age-long differences in the immediate family of the deceased, and one is left to suspect that what happened to the husband and wife might not be far from this lingering issue,” our source said.
Calls made to the cell phones of the traditional ruler, Eze Iweka III and the President General of Obosi, Deacon Ikenna Madubosa, were not answered, but, the immediate past president general of Obosi community, Chief Dan Igbokwubili Obii, when contacted, described the incident as chilling and sacrilegious.
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He said lack of unity in the community is also breeding all kinds of criminality in Obosi, and called on law enforcement agencies to rise up and nip the ugly situation in the bud.
Confirming the incident, the Anambra State Police Public Relations Officer, SP Haruna Mohammed, when contacted, said his office had been briefed and noted that the police have spread their dragnet aimed at apprehending the killers.
He appealed to members of the public to assist the police with useful information that would help them in arresting those involved in the criminal act.