Tragedy struck at Afaha Market in
Ibesikpo/Asuntan Local Government Area of Akwa Ibom State on Tuesday
when a trader was strangled after being raped by suspected hoodlums.
It was learnt that the woman from Ogoja,
Cross River State, had gone to the weekly Afaha market when the
incident occurred at night.
The woman, popularly called ‘Mama
Oliver’, was said to have gone outside the house to urinate when
four-man hoodlums swooped on her and took turns to rape her.
For how long will this continue in our country??
An eyewitness, said, “Mama Oliver said
she was going to urinate. It was in the process that the hoodlums
seized her. They had bouts of sex with her.
“It was believed that they strangled her
because she could identify some of the criminals. They feared that she
might expose them if they let her go.”
A friend of the deceased , Mrs. Eno Edet, said that the death of Mama Oliver was shocking.
Pointing to Mama Oliver’s space in the
market, Edet said, “I would never assume that anyone could be so
callous as to kill an innocent woman just because of sex.
“We have refused to sell things. The
death of Mama Oliver is painful. She and her other sisters usually come
from Ogoja on Afaha Market days.
“You can see her space in the market with her wares. We are really sad.”
Another trader, Mr. Ekong Okon, said what happened in Afaha Market on Tuesday could be attributed to darkness.
He said, “Where the women slept was not
far from where Mama Oliver went to urinate. If there was light, we
would have seen the men.
“I think Mama Oliver knew some of these
men. This could be the reason why they killed her. I still believe that
if the place had been properly illuminated, the sad incident would have
been averted.”
When Punch Metro went to the market , the deceased’s corpse had already been taken to a mortuary in Ibesikpo/Asutan LGA.
All attempts to speak with Mama
Oliver’s sisters were unsuccessful . One of them was said to have left
for Ogoja while the whereabouts of the second were not known.
The state Command’s spokesperson, Mr. Etim Dickson, neither responded to text messages sent to his phone nor picked his calls.
Source: Punch
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