How Co-tenant Slaughtered Neighbours Children

The Edo State Police Command has launched a manhunt for a man who hacked two children to death, severed the arm of another, while he also tore the nose of another child.

The suspect, Mike Okeze, 50, was said to have stormed the home of his neighbour ─ Udeh Oliver ─ on Wednesday in Okha II community, off Old Sapele Road in the Ikpoba-Okha Local Government Area of Edo State. He allegedly attacked Udeh’s children with a machete and hacked two of them – Destiny Oliver, (3 years); and Samson Oliver, (6 years) – to death.

Another of the children, Goodness Oliver, (4years), had her wrist severed, while eight-year-old Gift
Oliver sustained a deep cut in her nose.

The Edo State Police Command’s spokesman, Noble Uwoh, told PUNCH on the telephone that the police had launched a manhunt for the alleged killer and would soon apprehend him.
He said:

“The suspect murdered the two children in his neighbour’s apartment, following a misunderstanding between him and the Udehs. The man actually had a misunderstanding with the wife and the man went to her house and murdered a six-year-old boy and another three-year-old boy. The same suspect went ahead to inflict injuries on two other children of that woman who are currently undergoing treatment, while two corpses have been deposited in the mortuary. 

The injured ones are Gift Oliver, eight years, and Goodness Oliver, four years. The suspected killer fled the scene, but investigation is ongoing and efforts are being made to locate and arrest the man. We have launched a manhunt for him.”

The father of the children, Udeh, however urged the Edo State Government and the Nigeria Police to fish out the suspected killer and made him face the law. Udeh, who hails from Enugu, told PUNCH that his wife, Chinyere Udeh, was Okeze’s initial target. He added that the wife ran away to get help from neighbours when the assailant descended on the children.
He said:

The man attacked four of my children with a cutlass. Two died, while the remaining two are at the University of Benin Teaching Hospital. I have six children. My other two boys and my wife escaped from the man. The corpses of the two who died are at the Stella Obasanjo Hospital, Benin. 

It was my wife that he wanted to kill. But she ran away to call our neighbours. When they arrived at my house, he ran away into the bush and we have yet to find him.”

The mourning father claimed that the suspect had nurtured hatred for his family.
He continued:

“I didn’t have any problem with him. But my wife told me that he hated my children. So, when I travelled, he attacked my family with a cutlass and killed two of my children.”

The 30-year-old, who manages a farm for a living, lamented that he could not afford to pay the hospital bills of his two daughters, who had both been scheduled to undergo a surgery at the UBTH.

“I was told that two of my children, who were injured by the man, would have to undergo some operations. I know that the cost of the operations will be expensive and I don’t have any money. I only manage a farm to feed my family. I am appealing to the government and the police to help me fish out my family’s attacker wherever he is and get to the bottom of the case,” Udeh said.

In an encounter with Daily Sun, his wife, Chinyere, gave a blow by blow account of what transpired on the fateful day.
According to her: 

“Three days ago, my children were playing within the compound when our neigbour arrived and began to question why they ran past the front of his room. He then used a wheelbarrow to block the way. 

I went to beg him to forgive the children but he said my husband and I were sending them to insult him. In a short while, he pounced on me and held me by the neck. Next, he seized a cutlass and pursued me, but I ran for my life. 

When he could not keep pace with me, he returned to a spot in the compound and sat down. Thinking that his anger had simmered down, I went to the kitchen to take care of my cooking but I didn’t know he had locked the doors, with my children inside. A little while later, I heard the children, screaming for help and there was no way I could get in. All my six children were inside at that time. While I was outside, he was busy dealing the children machete blows. 

While that encounter lasted, he killed two while the two grownups escaped though the window. He succeeded in killing my baby of nine months and the other, who was three years old. The dead were both boys,” she said.

She then pleaded for government assistance, saying: 

“I want government to find the man and kill him just as he killed my children; we are a poor family.”

Giving an insight into what led to the dastard act, she said: 

“He had a quarrel with my husband three years ago. What caused the quarrel was that he brought a chameleon from the farm and smoked it in my kitchen. My husband warned him about it, saying a chameleon was dangerous. So, my husband had to throw it away. Three days later, my children fell sick. Since then, he has been chasing my children around but we didn’t know he haboured such evil intention. 

When I realised that he was killing the children, I struggled to break into the room. But by the time I succeeded, part of the horror I saw was that he had sliced my baby’s throat; he had also cut my other son’s head. He cut off my girl’s wrist and sliced the girl’s nose. Thereafter, he escaped through the window and fled into the bush. 

We need help now. We don’t even have any money to pay for the x-ray or operation on the rest of the children, who are alive,” she said.

At the University of Benin Teaching Hospital, doctors described the condition of the two children on admission as “stable but critical.”Spokesman of the Edo State Police Command, Noble Uwoh, a Deputy Superintendent of Police, said police were hunting for the fleeing murderer and would bring him to justice.