A 35-year old man, Mr. Uwem Job, on Wednesday, beheaded two of his
cousins, Mr. Akaninyene Job, 45; and Ezekiel Job, 36 in Ikot Nkim,
Ibesikpo/Asutan Local Government Area, Akwa Ibom State. While his two
other cousins – Itoro Job and Ekemini Job – narrowly escaped death as
Uwem’s machete missed their throats, but cut through their hands.
According to Akaninyene’s younger brother, Mr. Ekemini Job, around
8.10am that fateful day, Uwem came to their house and told Akaninyene to
come with him, saying that he had something to show him (Akaninyene).
He stated that as Akaninyene opened the curtain to see what Uwem had for him, he (Uwem) hit
Akaninyene on the neck with a machete and severed his head from the body.
Ekemini said:
Uwem came to our house around 8am and asked Akaninyene to open the door
and collect something he brought for him. Uwem had a 25-litre keg of
fuel in his hand and had hid a machete that he brought with him.
People who saw Uwem thought the keg contained palm wine. As my brother
opened the curtain to see Uwem, he quickly brought out his machete and
severed Akaninyene’s head from his body.”
An elder sister to Akaninyene, Mrs. Christian Ekong, said they were at
the backyard when the shouts from Ekemini caught their attention.
“Ekemini saw Uwem killing Akaninyene and raised the alarm. As we rushed
to the scene of the killing, I saw Uwem spilling the fuel on the flour.
He then struck a match.
I raised the alarm, alerting everybody in the house to run. If not for
the quick intervention of the youth of the area, the entire house would
have been burnt down,” Ekong said.
Ezekiel was said to have been killed few minutes after Akaninyene had
been beheaded. The distance between where Akaninyene lived and that of
Ezekiel was said to be about 20 metres.
An eyewitness, Okon Eyo, told Punch's correspondent that Ezekiel was
just waking up when Uwem called at his home and beheaded him.
He said:
“We heard shouts from Akaninyene compound, but we did not know what had
happened. The next moment, we saw Uwem go straight into Ezekiel room,
which was next to his (Uwem) and severe Ezekiel’s head.
Before we knew what had happened, Uwem had fled. We will apprehend him. We believe he is hiding around this area.”
When
Punch's correspondent visited the area, both bodies were laid in front of their houses.
Akaninyene’s younger sister, Mrs. Comfort Okon, told him that the killer
of her brother and Ezekiel came back from Lagos about two weeks ago.
“There had never been any quarrel in the family. When my mother was
buried on February 22, all the family members, including Uwem, were
there. They were the ones who perfected all the burial arrangement, I
don’t know why this has happened,” she said.
Bodies of the deceased, Akaninyene and Ezekiel, were later taken to the mortuary in a police van.
Efforts to reach the state Police Public Relations Officer, Mr. Etim
Dickson, to confirm the story failed as he did not answer calls to his
telephone or respond to text messages sent to the phone.