There was confusion in Ezinihitte Mbaise Council Area of Imo State when Mr. Louis Onwumere, an 80-year-old grand-father, poured petrol on his family house before allegedly striking a match and burning himself to death.
The grandpa, described by one villager as a “strange man” retired many years ago as a staff of the School of Arts and Science, Port Harcourt in Rivers State where he had worked with a Standard Six certificate as his highest qualification.
Although natives described the ugly incident as an abomination, first of its kind in the village, they could not pin-point anybody with whom he had any quarrel or fight to warrant such a bizarre action.
To prevent possible mass arrest of natives by the police and apparently wash their hands off the matter, some members of the Umualika village had gone to swear a court affidavit, insisting that the deceased who reportedly lived alone in the house had no trouble with anyone, hence they could not finger anybody as a suspect, according a source in the village.
The source disclosed that they had submitted the affidavit to the police at Ezinihitte Police Division in Ezinihitte Mbaise Council Area of the state.
On Thursday when the incident happened, the octogenarian, whose wife still resides in Port Harcourt, had waited patiently for the rain to stop before allegedly executing his plot.
“It rained from morning till about past 11 am on that day. When the sun began to shine in the afternoon, say at about 1pm the inferno began and raged on till at about 6pm before the walls of the building began to fall down,” a resident said.
It was gathered that the entire 3-bedroom and a sitting-room bungalow, the rooftop, the walls and everything were burning at the same time, suggesting that he might have spread petrol or kerosene on the house, our source said.
The state police spokesman, CSP Mike Abatam, neither answered calls nor replied a text message sent to him
