TRAGEDY IN ANAMBRA AS HUNTER SHOOTS SELF, WIFE AND SON, SETS HOUSE ABLAZE

Reporter : UCHE NDEKE

A sixty-five year old man, Uchechukwu Nweke, has allegedly shot and killed his wife, son and himself in Umuiyom Village, Amanuke in Awka North Local Government Area of Anambra State.

The incident, which occurred at about 3am on Thursday, January 28, 2021, took the people of the community by surprise as they trooped to the scene of the incident to know what happened.

Reports also indicated that the man, who was a hunter, also set his building ablaze before shooting himself in the mouth.

When Radio Nigeria arrived the scene of the incident, sympathizers gathered in their numbers as they took pictures of the three persons and the house that was totally burnt while expressing shock over the incident.

Investigation by Radio Nigeria revealed that the man, Uchechukwu Nweke, had been complaining to neighbours that his wife and children had been maltreating him to the point that he threatened to do something disastrous.

An eye witness and close neighbour, Chief Sampson Okoye, narrated that he heard two gun shots and few minutes later the deceased came to him complaining that the wife and children refused to release money for him to get his lab result for medical treatment arising from the last beating he received.

Mr. Okoye said that he appealed to the hunter to go back home that the matter would be resolved in the morning without even knowing that the gun shots he heard earlier were when the wife and son were killed.

“I was in my house when I heard gun shots,I came outside and noticed people running, after a while my friend, the deceased, came to my house with receipts, he said they were for lab test he did at General Hospital Amaku, that the family refused to give him #12,000 to carryout treatment.

“I did not even know that he had killed two of his family members, so I told him to go home that we will talk later in the morning.

“But he went back home and shot himself after setting the house ablaze,” Mr. Okoye narrated in sad tone.

Corroborating the findings, the Chairman of Vigilanncs group in Amanuke, Chief Charles Nnanwube, said he had intervened on several occasions when the late Mr. Nweke brought complaints of inhuman treatment by his first wife and children.

Chief Nnanwube, while expressing shock over the unfortunate incident, cautioned residents of the area, especially mothers, to desist from instigating their children against other members of their families rather embrace peaceful resolution of internal issues.