Paul Osuyi, Asaba
PALPABLE fear has once again gripped Abraka, a university community in Ethiope East Local Government Area of Delta State where suspected ritualists have allegedly strangulated an 18-year old girl, Favour Ogheneyenrohwo.
The suspected ritualists neatly shaved off her pubic hair before packaging her corpse in a ‘Ghana must go’ which they recklessly deposited at refuse dump site.
Her corpse was found on Thursday after she was murdered the previous day, with violent marks on her body, an indication that she was strangulated by her assailants.
The latest ritually motivated murder is coming barely seven when a 22-year old first class student in the department of Mass Communication, Delta State University, Abraka, Elozino Ogege was also killed allegedly for ritual purposes as her vital organs were missing when her corpse was discovered. The suspects in that incident are now facing trial.
But it was not yet clear if the latest victim, Favour, was a student of the DELSU, even as clues were yet to be established about the possible culprits.
But different sources fingered her fleeing boyfriend as the mastermind of the gruesome murder.
Arelation of the deceased, Miss Maureen Sunday, said her sister left with a boy on their way to the market in a waiting motorcycle also know as Okada but did not return on that fateful day.
Maureen contended that the deceased had received a call from a male at about 10 a.m, requesting that they meet at the Abraka Park.
A police source in the area said the said caller later traced the deceased to the road where she left with the boy and she did not return home that Wednesday.
Commissioner of Police, Mr. Adeyinka Adeleke also confirmed the development, saying “the lady in question was with the sister and she had a call. When she wanted to leave, she told her sister that it’s her boyfriend that she wanted to go and see.
“After some time she disappeared, they did not see her. the next day they saw her body tied in a sack in a plantain/banana plantation and her boyfriend runaway.
“So it is not a ritual, but a murder case. The physical sign in her body shows in the neck that she was strangulated. Maybe somebody tempered with her neck and threw her body into the bush and now the boyfriend disappeared till now. He is on the run.
“If he had nothing to do with what happened, why did he disappear? Why is he on the run? That is exactly what happened. Not ritual killing, but a case of murder. Her body has been taken to the mortuary.”