A cow intended to be slaughtered for Christmas violently attacked an owner, Sobokime Igodo who is 43 years two days to Christmas celebration and he died later at the University of Portharcourt Teaching Hospital.
Narrating the incident with journalists in Yenagoa, the deceased elder brother, Eniye Igodo, said, his younger brother contributed money with some of his friends to buy the cow to celebrate the festive season which was kept in his residence as Secretary of his group, and the cow was to be slaughtered on the 23rd December, 2022, but unfortunately, he was attacked by the same cow in a violent manner that led to his death few days later.
He said: “Actually, you know we are in the festive season and he and his group of friends decided to contribute money to buy a cow so that they could slaughter it and share among themselves and make merriment with their families. So, on December 23, they brought the cow to his residence as the secretary of the group.
“But where the cow was kept was not the actual spot they wanted to slaughter and butcher it. They tried to move the cow to the spot where they wanted to slaughter it, but the cow refused to move. It stayed put to the ground.
“Somebody was holding the rope with which they tied it. Suddenly, the cow got up and rushed towards the deceased and attacked him, hitting him, and he fell to the ground immediately. The person holding the rope could not restrain the cow as it got loose from the rope. The cow left him and ran in another direction after nobody in particular”.
According to his elder brother, the deceased initially lost consciousness, but regained later, but couldn’t raise his hands and legs which they confirmed that he was paralysed.
He said his situation got bad that they have to rushed him to the Yenagoa Federal Medical Centre, saying the doctor who attended to him said he had sustained a spinal cord injury and that the hospital had no specialist to handle his case.
“The doctor then recommended that we should take him to the University of Benin Teaching Hospital or University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital or Enugu. So, we chose to take him to UPTH since it is closest to us.
“The next day, December 24, we arranged for an ambulance and took him to UPTH. He was talking with us in the ambulance on our way to UPTH. He said he was having difficulty breathing.
“As soon as we got to UPTH, he said we should get him out and we promptly did so. We called the attention of a doctor because FMC Yenagoa gave us a referral letter. So the doctor gave him quick attention. My brother was taken to the emergency unit for the doctor to examine him. It was while the doctor was examining him that he gave up the ghost.
The group hired the services of two butchers; one of them held the rope on the neck of the cow and the other held the rope at the cow’s back. My other younger brother told me that someone had called Sobokime on the phone to meet him at the junction nearby, and he wanted to go meet the person but he changed his mind to also assist the butchers to move the cow to the right spot for slaughtering. He joined the one in front of the cow, and that was when the cow suddenly sprang up and attacked him, and he fell down”.
