Chief Oforbuike Ani, a native of Amodu Akunanaw in the Nkanu West Local Government Area of Enugu State, died after a widow allegedly plucked out his eyes.
The 38-year-old widow and mother of five, identified as Blessing Nwatu, was alleged to have hit the old man with a brick, where he was sitting in his compound on February 21, 2020.
After the casualty had fallen down, Nwatu allegedly used a knife to pluck out his eyes and left him in a pool of his own blood.
It was gathered that neighbours, who got wind of the incident, called one of Ani’s sons living in Enugu, the state capital, who came and took him to hospital, where he died on February 28.
One of the sons of the deceased, Barry said that his father’s killing hit him like a thunderbolt. He stated, “On February 21, 2020, I received a call from my father’s best friend that I should come home immediately because my father was seriously ill. I thought maybe it was his usual illness. So, I rushed home.
“While on my way to the village, I started receiving calls that I should come home because a woman used a knife to pluck out my father’s eyes.
“When I got home, I saw my father lying down in a pool of blood in the compound with his two eyes plucked out. I asked a woman I saw in the neighbourhood where the perpetrator was, but she advised that I should take my father to hospital first. I took her advice and rushed my father to the University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital, Ituku-Ozalla.
“I met a doctor at the Emergency Unit and he asked me what happened to my father; I could not tell him much, because I didn’t have the details and he told me to get a police report before the hospital would start treatment”, he told Punch.
Daniel Ndukwe, the state Police Public Relations Officer said the perpetrator had been arrested and was charged on Friday. Ndukwe also added that she has been remanded in a correctional centre.