A 26- year-old man, Ikechukwu Okoro is currently in custody of the
Ebonyi State Criminal Investigation Department (SCID) for allegedly
beating his three-year-old son, Chinedu to death.
Okoro, according neighbours woke up by 4.30am on September 13, 2013
to discover that his sick and only son had defecated on the bed.
Apparently angered by the boy’s action, he picked a cane and flogged him repeatedly until the boy gave up the ghost.
He rushed the dead boy to a nearby clinic but he was confirmed dead on arrival.
He told the police that he never knew what came over him, “It was out
of annoyance that I flogged my son, Chinedu to death. The boy had been
sick for some time. It was when I woke up around 4.30am that fateful day
that I discovered that Chinedu had defecated on my mattress.
“He was the only son I had. When I discovered that he had defecated
on the bed we were sleeping together. I went outside to look for a stick
to flog him, just like any other normal father would have done to his
recalcitrant child. I found a bitter leaf stick and used it to flog him
twice. I didn’t know that it could lead to his death.
Okoro, a native of Isieta Amanato, in Isu Onicha Local Government
Area of Ebonyi State, further explained that his wife, Uchechi abandoned
him in 2009 with Chinedu, his only son who is now deceased.
He blamed Satan for the misfortune. “It was Satan that used me. When I
was flogging him, I perceived an irritating odour from his mouth and I
stopped flogging him immediately. I rushed him to a nearby clinic around
my area. The same doctor that I took my son to, took us to another
hospital. There, the doctors told me, after examination that my child
was dead.”
Okoro said he could not believe it when he brought the corpse of his
child home, and raised the alarm that attracted the attention of
neighbours. “They came to ask me what killed my son. I confessed to them
that he died as a result of the flogging I gave him because he
defecated on my mattress.”
“My son had been sick, his stomach was swollen before I flogged him,” Okoro lamented.
One of the neighbours, Ogbonnaya Orie who was the only person who
pleaded with Ikechukwu to stop beating his son said all his efforts fell
on deaf ears. “And when Chinedu died, he begged me to assist him to
bury the child, but I refused,” he said.
Ebonyi State Police Command through its State Criminal Investigations
Department, (SCID) is currently interrogating Ikechukwu Okoro at Isieta
Amanato Isu Onicha.
The Ebonyi State Commissioner of Police, Mr Maigari Abbati Dikko said
that it was a shock to him that the suspect, Ikechukwu confessed to
have flogged his own son, Chinedu to death.
The police Commissioner said the case was reported at Isu Onicha
Divisional Headquarters of the police and the suspect was arrested with
his son’s corpse. The CP said the case had been transferred to the State
CID for further investigation. He said the suspect would be charged to
court for murder.
