Obinna Odogwu, Abakaliki

Doctors at the second phase of the Accident and Emergency unit of the Federal Teaching Hospital, Abakaliki (FETHA II), Ebonyi State are at the moment battling to save the life of a 30-year-old man, Mr Anabaraonye Idam, who was allegedly attacked by his stepbrothers with dangerous weapons.

Idam, who hails from Ugwuegu Ubam community in Afikpo North Local Government Area of the state, had travelled home from his base in Abakaliki, the state capital, on March 10, a year after he visited home last.

With excitement, he arrived their village where he met his siblings and mother; and after exchanging pleasantries with them, he went in to keep his luggage. But little did he know that ill fate awaited him.

His stepbrothers that fateful morning allegedly swooped on him, dragged him to a corner of the house and allegedly under the supervision of their father, inflicted him with injuries all over his body, using dangerous weapons.

They were alleged to have also given him a deep machete cut on the head, which, according to the doctors, touched his brain.  At the moment, the victim is lying critically ill and in a state of coma in the hospital.

But the trouble that culminated to this attack, Sunday Sun gathered, did not start on that day. The victim’s mother, Mrs Obila Idam, narrated that the problem in the family started shortly after she tied the nuptial nut with her husband.

Obila, a second wife, alleged that her husband had never hidden his dislike for her and her children and expressed the same whenever he saw the opportunity. She alleged that the man never catered for her, but invested more on the first wife and her children.

“But immediately I gave birth to my first child, his hatred for me started and he treated me very badly. His mother caused it as she was the one that was advising him to be maltreating me. There was nothing I did that he and his mother liked as they kept maltreating me.

“Despite this, I still bore children for him. You know we women are very easy to be deceived. He would always come to me whenever I finished nursing my baby and begged me and then I would forgive him.

“He would then impregnate me and start maltreating me the way he was doing to me before. He was always very close to me whenever I finished nursing my child and I usually conceive immediately he sleeps with me. As soon as I put to bed, he would start his troubles again,” she alleged.

Obila further alleged that her husband never cared about the welfare of her children neither did he pay their school and West African Examination Council (WAEC) fees.

She also alleged that “out of seven rooms and a parlour, including a store my husband built, only one room was given to my six children; four girls and two boys, while the store was given to me to live. The rest belongs to my co-wife and her eight children.”

As soon as her children came of age, they, as anyone would expect, joined forces with their mother.

Obila told Sunday Sun that her children have often registered their displeasures to their father over the alleged bad treatment he meted to them and their mother.

“This my son that they attacked with machete and inflicted with injuries even on his head has been condemning my husband’s actions against us, and that was why they wanted to kill him”, she alleged.

On that fateful Sunday morning, Obila told Sunday Sun that she was about going to church when her second son, Anabaraonye, came back home. She said that she was still in the church when she received a distress call that her son was at the verge of death.

“I was in the church when one of my daughters ran to me and told me that her brother has been killed. I almost fainted and before I could come back, they have been taken to Mater Hospital, Afikpo for treatment.

“Anabari was later taken to Federal Teaching Hospital Abakaliki because of the seriousness of the injuries. The incident scared me out of my house to avoid being killed.

“Few days later, I went to pick my clothes and wrappers to change the ones I was wearing because they were dirty. I came into the house when one of my co-wife’s sons came to me with a sharp machete. I challenged him to kill me that I was not afraid of death, but he lost his courage to attack me”, she said.

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Her first son, Mr Ndubuisi Idam, who was inflicted with a machete cut on his left hand, corroborated what their mother said. He alleged that the man stood there with a gun and threatened to shoot anybody who came close to rescue the victim. Ndubuisi said that he got the machete cut when he rushed in to rescue his younger brother.

“When I went back to the house, I heard him shouting in pain and asking for help. I heard one of them saying ‘kill him’, ‘kill him’. My father was there with gun. All his sons from the first wife were there too.

“Immediately I rushed in, my father his pointed gun at me and threatened to shoot me. I ran out and raised the alarm.

“When some people rushed in they attacked the first man that approached them. In that process, my brother escaped from their grip and ran out. On his way out, they gave him a deep machete cut on his head”, he alleged.

One of their uncles, Mr Godwin Onya Arua, who witnessed the alleged attack narrated his own side of the story.

Hear him: “On Sunday being 10th March, I was having a haircut in front of our house. Suddenly, one of my brothers’ sons who came from Abakaliki came around, greeted me and my younger brother and told us that he was coming.

“He moved to the adjacent of their building. Within 25 minutes, I began to hear some shouts from the compound. My younger brother ran out to find out what was happening.

“When he got there, he raised the alarm that they have carried machete and were inflicting injuries on somebody. With that alarm, they came out with their machete to the view of everybody.

“They then began to threaten my younger brother that if he dared came close, they would machete him the way they did to the son of the second wife called Anabari.

“That was the time the victim had the chance to run out with blood all over his body. One of the first wife’s sons came out and chased after him and gave him the first cut on the back of his head and chased him outside our own village into a nearby village where the guy slumped.

“I got afraid when I saw that their father had brought out an assault rifle, and then I decided to go to the police and reported the case. Eventually, one of the attackers and his father came to lodge complaints and I told the police that they were the attackers and they were detained.

“Their father came with the gun and iron to claim that they were attacked with them, but I told police that the two should be detained because that was what they used on their victims; that the man was my uncle and I cannot tell lies against him”, he narrated.

The victims’ younger sister, Esther Chukwu, who also corroborated the stories, however, announced to newsmen during an interview that she has denounced her father; hence, the adoption of her uncle’s name, Chukwu, as her surname.

“I’ll be answering my uncle’s name. I have disowned that man; he is not my father”, she declared.

When contacted on the telephone, their accused father, Mr Idam Arua, dismissed this reporter, and ordered him to hang up the phone. “I said that you should drop this call. I am not ready for this stuff you are talking about. Drop this call.”

When our reporter pressed further for his reaction, he told him to “get away” and hung up the phone.

Meanwhile, there were allegations that the police in Afikpo Division handling the matter were playing double standard.

Some residents who spoke to Sunday Sun last Monday alleged that their kinsman, Mr Godwin Onya Arua, who reported the matter to the police, has allegedly been arrested and detained by the police while the suspects walked the street free.

Police Public Relations Officer in the state, ASP Loveth Odah, told Sunday Sun that the state command was aware of the incident, but would not be able to react on it as she did not have clearer view of what actually transpired.

She, however, said that investigation has commenced on the matter.