A 16 year-old Miss Nwanneka Odah was, yesterday, beheaded by a three -man gang suspected to be ritual killers at Nawfia in Njikoka Local Government Area of Anambra State.
This came as the Awka branch manager of a new generation bank, (name withheld), Mr. Tochukwu Nnadi, was yesterday kidnapped about 7.30am on his way to the office.
Nwanneka was said to be hawking groundnuts along the Nawfia –Awka road close to Nawfia Comprehensive Secondary School when the three young men allegedly pretended as if they wanted to buy groundnuts from her only for one of them to use a machete to cut off her head when she bent down to sell the groundnuts to them.
A relation of the deceased, Mr. Friday Ogalagu described the situation as terrible, lamenting that he had never seen such a thing in his life.
He said: “I was not there when it happened, but I was told that my cousin was stopped by three men who said they wanted to buy groundnuts. While two of them were on the road side, the third, who dressed like a mad man was standing closely.
When the girl bent down to put the ground nuts for them, the one close by brought out what somebody said looked like an axe and beheaded the girl. An Okada rider plying the road who saw what happened stopped and the three men ran into the bush, leaving their victim whose head was already severed, struggling for life.”
Ogalagu said that it was when people began to make inquiries about the parents of the girl that he was contacted.
According to Ogalagu who claimed to be training the girl since childhood, the body had been deposited at the Amaku General Hospital in Awka, while the parents who live in Ebonyi had been contacted.
Anambra State Police Public Relations Officer, PPRO, Mr. Raphael Uzoigwe, confirmed the incident, saying the matter had been referred to the State Criminal Investigation Department, CID, for investigation.
Banker kidnapped in Awka
A staff in the bank said there had not been any contact with the kidnappers, lamenting that the incident had put fears among bankers.
It was gathered that the abductors waited for their victim in two cars at the Iyiagu area of the capital city with doors of their cars opened and as he drove close to the area, they used one of the cars to block him and dragged him out of his car into their own and drove off.
The State Police Command, however said the matter had not been reported to it at the time of filing the report.
Police spokesman, Mr. Raphael Uzoigwe, told reporters that he had made contacts with the Central Police Station and the B-division in the command, claiming no such case was reported.
Source: Vangaurd