Evil spirit pushed me to kill my kinsmen –Suspect

A middle aged man, Joseph Emeka Okoro, who was arrested for murder by

the police in Isu, Onicha Local Government Area of Ebonyi State has

blamed the crime on evil spirits.

Okoro, who was arrested for allegedly killing two of his kinsmen at

Umuniko in Isu area of the state told the police that he was pushed by

some evil spirits to commit the crime.

According to the police spokesman in the state, Mr. Chris Anyanwu, the

suspect was arrested on November 14, 2013 after he attacked and killed

two of his kinsmen; Peter Awoke and Sunday Agar with machete while

they were working on their farms.

The police said two other victims, who sustained serious injuries from

the attack, were currently lying critically ill in an undisclosed

hospital.

Okoro confessed to the crime at the state police headquarters when the

police paraded him saying he had been having the urge to kill before

the incident.

The suspect claimed that he returned from Lagos two days before he

committed the murder adding that any time the spirit came upon him,

he would be restless.

He however pleaded that he had no intention to kill, but that the

spirit keep on disturbing him until he saw the first man whom he

killed and some others on whom he used the machete.

"I know those people that I killed, but I didn't know why I killed

them or when I did it. They are good people whom I have never had any

quarrel with. I think an evil spirit possessed me."

The suspect further explained that the manipulations of the evil

spirit was further worsened by the effects of some hard drugs injected

into his body by assassins hired by his former master in Lagos to kill

him before he came back to his hometown.

While narrating his ordeal in the hands of his former master whom he

claimed refused to settle him after years of meritorious service,

Okoro said the man instead hired assassins to kill him.

"Whenever this spirit came upon me, it will just be like I was mad.

That was worsened by the effects of the drugs I was injected with by

some people hired by my former master to kill me. I have never seen

such powerful drugs in my life. I was given up to 48 injections."

Okoro claimed that his former master came after him even when he

escaped to a white garment church and told the church members that he

was mad.

"But while I was there , I asked to make a phone call and they obliged

me. After the phone call, church members started wondering how a mad

man was able to know the numbers to call and discuss coherently.

"I sold my phone for N5,000 to be able to raise money to come back

home. I have never killed before; even one of the people I killed was

my in-law."

Meanwhile, PPRO Anyanwu said it took the efforts of youths in the area

and a team of policemen from Onicha Divisional Police Station to

arrest the suspect, who took to his heels after committing the crime.

A community leader in the area, Hon. Ogbonnaya Igboke who spoke to

Sunday Sun regretted the incident, saying that he could not comprehend

how a right thinking man would use a machete to kill fellow human

beings for no reason.

He further explained that bodies of the victims have been deposited at

the Onicha General Hospital mortuary adding that efforts were being

made to ensure that there was no breakdown of law and order in the

community.

Meanwhile, Okoro has been charged to a magistrate court sitting in

Abakaliki, which remanded him in prison custody. The court then

adjourned the case to January 13, 2014.