From Geoffrey Anyanwu, Enugu
Enugu residents woke up recently to the shocking news of a 36-year-old commercial tricycle operator, Chidi Onyishi, who allegedly killed his seven-year-old son, Chukwudalu Richard, for money ritual.
When Onyishi and his accomplices, including a 95-year-old blind spiritual leader, Okeke Eneokwor, were paraded by the police, it was a moment of buck passing as he blamed the nonagenarian for misleading him into the cruel act.
Daily Sun gathered that Chukwudalu had shouted ‘Daddy, daddy, what’s happening,’ as his head was being dipped inside the river the first time but his father like the devil deceived him, saying he was trying to baptize him. By the time he gave him the second and third dip in the river, the boy was finally drowned.
Onyishi had after killing his own son at a river in Abakpa Nike, an Enugu suburb, returned to the Coal Camp and to the nearby Central Police Station (CPS) where he reported a case of a missing child. To further cover up his atrocity, the wicked father pointed accusing finger on the Coal Camp neighbourhood.
A resident of the street and representative of the Coal Camp Welfare Association, Anike Paul, who spoke to Daily Sun, narrated Onyishi’s confession to them on how he and his accomplices killed his son.
He said: “I want to use this opportunity to thank members of Taylor Avenue for their proactive actions because when this thing happened, some of the people living here noticed when the man took his child out but came back, saying that his child was missing. But somebody saw him when he took the boy and we started investigating within ourselves telling the man (Onyishi) that we are going to take him to where he will swear to an oath that he was not the one that took his child away.
“After much pressure, he confessed to us that he was the one that took him away. He asked us to give him protection, we said no problem we are going to protect you. What we did was to go to the Central Police Station (CPS) to make a report concerning it and allow everything to lie low because that was sit-at-home day declared by the IPOB. We decided to leave it to maybe on Saturday for the arrest and after coming back from work on Saturday, we called in the Police to arrest him.”
Asked of the situation they found the boy, he said that the body was “almost decaying, you can’t identify him, it was a horrible sight I must say.
“Mr. Onyishi told us that there is one spiritual leader of their occult group, Pastor Okeke Eneokwor, 95, that the man asked him to bring his son for sacrifice. So, he took the boy to that river and dipped his head inside the river. When the boy started calling him Daddy, Daddy, what is the problem, he told the little boy that he was trying to baptize him. So, after the second and third time, they drowned the little boy. He said the man (spiritual leader) was there telling them what to do, what they will do with the body and after doing it. He called one Chinedu as an accomplice, he is the driver of the spiritual leader. So, after doing the sacrifice, they used white cloth to tie the boy and buried him close to the river.”
Onyishi’s distressed wife gives gory details
Narrating how she started looking for her child to Daily Sun, Mrs. Ifebuchechukwu Onyishi, who said they are from Nsukka in Enugu State, volunteered: “This thing happened on Wednesday, October 20. It was that day that I began to search for Chukwudalu. I searched for him both through the churches and traditional means; there was no place I did not go in search of my son and all the places I went to they assured me that Chukwudalu will return. I started doing midnight prayers and even while walking on the road, I continued to pray for God to let my son return to me. The Block Rosary children in our street were also praying for his return.”
The mother of six whose remaining five kids are aged 10, nine, five and three years old respectively with the last one being seven months old and who now live at the mercy of neighbours continued: “But on Saturday, Ogam (my husband) came back after moving around for the day and asked if I cooked food. I said yes, he said I should put food for him to eat and I did. He ate and after eating, he fell asleep. He was sleeping when our neighbour called Parker knocked on our door and my first daughter went to the door and said it is Parker. He told her to call her daddy for him. So, I went and woke him up that Parker came for him because the chairman was looking for him. I asked him to go and see him to know why he was looking for him, whether he had information about Chukwudalu. He said okay and left, I wanted to go with him but he refused and it was already night.
“Shortly after, I began to hear noise outside and I came out to behold the crowd and police van coming down with people everywhere. I then heard Parker saying to him (my husband) that they will deal with him that he will know that he is in the Camp. That he killed his son for money ritual and accused the Camp people of killing him. It was to me as if I was in a dream when I heard that, I couldn’t hold myself, I ran inside, many thoughts ran across my head, do I kill myself or what? It was at that point that my first daughter and the other one and other people around began to hold me. My daughter said to me repeatedly, mummy if you die we will suffer, that no one will take care of them. So, they held me down in the room, I was speechless. I asked our street boys who came with the police if my son was alive, they said yes and I said if he is alive let them bring him back to me, that temptation comes to everyone.
“But after a short while, those who followed the police to the CPS came back and said that my son was dead, I shouted and said it is all over, I have no more hope about Chukwudalu returning.
“They said that my husband had confessed that he killed Chukwudalu, he used him for sacrifice. They said they discovered the body of my son in Abakpa, I didn’t go with them because policemen refused me going with them.”
Asked if her husband had before now shown any suspicious behaviour like one in any occult group, the woman who has been married to Onyishi for 10 years said: “Even if you ask him, he will say God forbid. But on that October 20, he became harsh to us and I asked him the reason for the sudden change in attitude, but he said nothing. Though he had been complaining of his Keke disturbing him as he kept repairing it with his little savings, but I advised him to take it easy, at least, the children and I were not complaining and would manage.
“On that same day, we discovered that Chukwudalu my third child, was missing and all efforts to locate his whereabouts proved abortive. We searched everywhere but we could not find him. I called my husband severally but he was not responding but he later called back in the evening and I told him that our son was missing. My husband said he knew nothing about his whereabouts. He left the house and came to tell me that where he went to inquire, that he was told that the child was taken out of Enugu. I began to pray and my husband too went to his altar in the house and prayed as well. We are Catholics but when I relocated from the village to the town, I found out that my husband now attend white garment church. I asked him which one and he said Sabbath. But I later noticed how he was behaving, I insisted in knowing the particular white garment church he was attending and he opened up and said it is Olumba Olumba Obu. I said okay, so, you followed the man you are driving to his church because he kept his Keke and is now working as a driver but when he had spare time he used his Keke. That old man he was arrested with is the man he is driving and the man attends Olumba Olumba Obu. The one police called pastor. But I kept insisting that my husband knew where our son was because all fingers were pointing at him as neighbours saw him last with the child.”
Her suspicion became real when police came and arrested her husband. “Seeing him with the exhumed body of my son, I felt that my world has collapsed. My annoyance was that he followed us in search of him while he was the one that killed him,” she cried uncontrollably.
Neighbours in shock
The neighbours are still in shock as they had seen Onyishi as a very good and religious man and for going the length of using his son for money ritual baffled them.
One of them, Ken Nnamani, an engineer, said their neighbour had committed an abomination, adding that the incident has shown that human beings could just be green snakes in green grass.
He said: “His act is unfortunate, it is evil; he committed abomination. I have not seen him in a way I will suspect him. He can sing very well, he can praise God very well all the time. Maybe that was a camouflage because by mere looking at him you can’t tell that he is evil.
“We are all in shock, since that day, everybody is in shock. We had been trying our best since then to unravel the mystery of the boy’s disappearance and we are happy that at last, the culprits, his father and others have been arrested.”
Another neighbour, Nicholas Obi, remarked: “I am actually dumbfounded. Nothing on earth showed him as an occultist. He relates well with everyone around here and he is always singing Christian songs. This has shown me that you don’t judge anybody by mere physical appearance.”
Enugu government’s intervention
Enugu State Governor, Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi, has visited Mrs. Onyishi and her children at their No. 25 Taylor Street Coal Camp Enugu.
Ugwuanyi, who was represented by his Special Adviser on Information, Steve Oruruo, assured them of government’s support and resolve to ensure that they got justice, just as he gave the woman the sum of N500,000 in the interim to assist them.
Consoling the family, Oruruo among other things had said that “it is the wish of government to use every legal means within the government to ensure that there is diligent investigation and that the course of justice cannot be subverted. The government is poised not to allow it to be truncated; everything that needs to be done must be done by Enugu State government to ensure that you find justice.”