The Abia State Police Command has arrested one man suspected to be among a gang of heartless criminals that hacked to death an 86-year-old man and his 70 year old wife in their room at Umuovo village , Old Umuahia, in Umuahia South local government area of Abia State.
The police has also mounted a man haunt for other members of the gang now on the run after committing the heinous crime.
The Abia State Police Command public relations officer, Mr Onyeeke Udeviotu who confirmed the incident and arrest said that investigations were on to track down the other culprits
LEADERSHIP Weekend gathered that in the early hours of Sunday February 28 2016, the victims Mr Godfrey Onyenadum Asonye and the wife, Mrs Keziah Asonye had gone to bed when unidentified assailants gruesomely murdered them in their sleep at about 1am
The couple it was furthered gathered was only living with two small girls aged about 13, and eight as their children two men and four women are all grown ups and were living outside the state.
The assailants were said to had come for some money allegedly sent to the old couples by their children who were residing outside the state for their up keep as well as for the execution of some projects.
This it was learnt fueled the suspicion that the hatchet men must have been those who have been close to the victims and had been running errands for them as old people.
The source said the mindless bandits had packed the loots inside the victims Toyota car parked inside his garage and were apparently searching for the key to unlock the gate before an alarm was raised by one of the little girls who were in another room.
According to one of the girls when she woke up and discovered her mouth has been tied with a wet handkerchief and saw a man wearing a mask who was trying to hold her down she jumped up pushed him out and ran out of the house and started shouting.
He said, the attackers had also loaded into the car some of the items the woman purchased for resell in her stall in the village but abandoned everything and fled when the alarm was raised
The immediate younger brother of the victim, Mr. Lawrence Chukwuemeka Asonye, said the assailants allegedly gained entrance into brother’s compound through the backyard fence and through car park door.
According to him Pa Asonye, a British trained Civil Engineer who retired with the Abia State Ministry of Works “we found him dead in his bed, while the wife’s hands and feet were tied backwards with sole-tape before she was clubbed to death The attackers used stick in clubbing the hapless couple to death” . The Suspects after the gruesome murder locked the rooms behind the victims after carting away their plasma television, clothes, some other valuables and money sent to them by their children for their upkeep packed the loots inside the victims Toyota car parked inside his garage and were apparently searching for the key to unlock the gate before an alarm was raised by one of the little girls who were in another room and had been gagged with hand kerchief on her mouth.
