The decomposing body of Innocent Obi, the Deputy Registrar of the Federal Polytechnic, Uwana, Ebonyi State, has been found in a bush in Ezeala, Umuezeala autonomous community in the Ehime Mbano Local Government Area of Imo State.
Obi, popularly known by villagers as Onye Army, had travelled to his village in Imo State from his base in Ebonyi State for the funeral rites of his relative when he was kidnapped from his house in the village.
After returning home from the funeral last weekend, hoodlums wearing military and police uniforms invaded his house around 10 pm.
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One of the villagers told Punch: ‘They broke through the main door and started using machetes and axes on him.
‘His cry for help attracted villagers to the scene, but the boys who were operating on three motorcycles, started shooting consistently into the air.
‘The shooting forced everybody who had come out for his rescue back. And they abducted Dee Onye Army from that Friday night, leaving heavy blood stains in the house.’
The following day, Saturday, Oct. 14, villagers summoned a search party and they went in search of him.
‘It was late Sunday afternoon (Oct. 15) that we got information about a decomposing corpse lying between Ehime Mbano and Ahiazu Mbaise.
‘When our people visited the scene that Sunday, it was the dead body of our brother, Dee Onye Army, that we met.
‘They gruesomely butchered him beyond recognition.
‘Dee Onye Army was a man who ensured that any youth who wanted to go to school got admission. So many youths were given admission to his school. He never lived like a rich man, always unassuming.
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‘It was now that he started building his own house in the village and that building is just within the decking stage before his death’, the villager said.
Obi had retired from the military before joining the service of the Federal Polytechnic, Uwana.
He was said to have also applied to be the next substantive registrar of the institution before his untimely death.
The incident is said to have left the community and its neighbours in great fear, following the recurrence of similar killings and other related criminal activities in the area, particularly the killing of about five security operatives in the area recently.
