Tragedy has struck the family of Olise Agwunobi of Oko-Ogbele community in the Oshimili south local government area of Delta State after two relations reportedly conspired with a neighbour to abduct and kill their twin boys.
The remains of the 7-year-old twins reportedly killed for money rituals have been recovered from separate shallow graves.
The incident which took place last Tuesday had left the family in anguish and thrown the entire community into mourning.
Narrating the tragic incident on Wednesday, Mr Olise Agwunobi, father of the deceased twins, lamented how his uncle and his cousin conspired with his neighbour to kill his two children for money rituals.
He said the family were still confused and in shock as the tragedy was hard to fathom.
According to him, he returned home from work one evening and could not find the twins, Chiagozi Agwunobi and Chidelu Agwunobi, as they hardly went out of the house after school.
He said, “It was around 7:00pm when they did not return to the house that it dawned on us that something was not right.
“So my wife and I raised an alarm to the entire community that we could not find our children. Before then, we had visited their school teachers and families of fellow schoolchildren and confirmed that they had come back home from school.
“So, immediately the community formed search parties to look for the children and for four days, everybody looked for them,” he said, adding that one of his neighbours later informed them that he saw his cousin with the twins but could not say where they were taken to.
The bereaved father said the killers of his children later confessed that on that fateful day, they went to the boys’ school to abduct them.
And when they did not find them, they went to their (the Agwunobis) house to wait for them.
He identified the suspects as Chukuwdi Edemuzor, Nwanozie Uzor and Onuwa Ajie.
According to him, Chukwudi is his cousin, Nwanozie is his uncle and Onuwa is his neighbour.
Giving more insight into the incident, Agwunobi said, “They went to look for the children in their school but they couldn’t find them as the children had come back. So, they came to my house, lured the children out and abducted them.
“Then they took them to the bush where they killed them and took some parts of their bodies.”
Another family member, Chimeize, who was part of the search parties told SaharaReporters that the killing of the twins had left a deep wound in their family, adding that such an incident had never happened in the community and its environs.
He said when they heard that one of their neighbours was with the children, “we felt that maybe they had been kidnapped, not knowing that we were in for a bigger surprise”.
“So, they killed the two boys, collected their parts and disappeared from the community,” he said.
Continuing, Chimeize said, “So as we were looking for them, thinking that they had been kidnapped, one of the neighbours told us that he saw his brother when he was with the children.
“It was the younger brother of one of those that killed him that leaked the secret to us that he saw his brother with the twins. So, as we were looking for them, we thought it was kidnapping till four days later, when one of those that killed the children, a family brother (cousin) called and said that they had killed the twins and kept their bodies in a particular place.
“Then, the community announced that everybody should go into the bush in search of their bodies. We didn’t go far into the bush when we saw a grave where they had buried one of the twins.
“We called him back and asked him about the other twin. Then he directed us to another place where they kept the other twin.
“At that point, we called the police and they came and took the bodies away.”
“We believe that it was the spirit of the children that haunted him and made him tell the family where they killed and dumped their bodies.
“The leader of the ritualists is Chukwudi Edemuzor and that is the one we are still looking for.
“The one that gave us the information, Nwanozie Uzor and Onuwa Ajie have been arrested,” he added.
Chimeize said the suspects confessed that they killed the twins for money rituals.
“They said they wanted to make money and riches,” he said, with obvious pain in his voice.
“The two that were arrested have told the community that their leader is Chukwudi Edemuzor and that he was the one who sent them to bring two male children with dreadlocks for money rituals and that was how they came and picked the children because they had dreadlocks,” he added.
Noting that the remains of the deceased twin boys had been recovered and deposited in the mortuary, Chimeize further disclosed that their killers “cut off their tongues, hair, one finger each from the boys and plucked out one of their eyes each”.
“Also, where they dumped their bodies, they left N40, probably that was part of the rituals but the police have taken the money,” he said.
He said the family later heard that the suspects had been telling their friends and others that before December 2023, they would be stinking rich.
According to Time Africa, when contacted the Delta State Police Public Relations Officer, DSP Bright Edafe, for a reaction and update, he said he had no information about the incident but promised to find out and get back to SaharaReporters.
“I have no information about this incident but I will find out and get back to you,” he told our reporter.
Credit: Time Africa
