Houseboy murders University Lecturer in Awka

A middle-aged man has murdered a lecturer working with the Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, Anambra State.

The incident happened on Friday night at Ifite village in Awka, the State capital.

It was gathered that the lecturer simply identified as Chima Anolue, who work at the Psychology Department, was murdered shortly after a brief argument which led to a fight between the two.

This was corroborated by videos currently trending on the social media, which show the suspect as he confessed to have truly killed the lecturer with a pestle.

He said, “When he came back, he told me to cook rice and as I was cooking the rice, he asked me why I did not wash plates, i did not reply him anything. And then, he further asked why I wasn’t responding to his question.

“In the process, he slapped me. But I told him I usually have ear problem, and that people don’t slap me. As I was saying that, he angrily asked if I was still talking while he was talking. And therefore, he slapped me again, and brought out cain and started flogging me all over.

“Then in the process, I got angry, and we started fighting. It was also in the process of that fight that I picked up the pestle in the kitchen and hit him on the head.”

The suspect also confessed to have hit Chima with the pestle up to three times before he stopped, after he had fallen on the ground.

The video also shows the deceased lying lifeless in the hospital bed, while his bereaved relatives gathered to behold and mourn him, alongside his friends and some hospital officials who were also interrogating the suspect.

It was also gathered that while Chima’s friends and the suspect were taking him to the hospital that night for medical attention after the encounter, he (the suspect), was attempting to choke him to death right inside the vehicle where he was sitting close to him.

“It was in the process that we discovered what was going on and therefore hit off his hand and started suspecting him. As that was going on also, the victim who was still alive then, used his last strength to cough out the suspect’s name, before he finally gave up the ghost,” said one of the eyewitnesses.

Meanwhile, the suspect was said to have denied knowing anything about Chima’s death, but eventually confessed to the crime to the doctor on duty at the hospital that night.

“In his confessions, he first said that it was the girlfriend of the deceased who visited him that night that attacked him. However, he eventually confessed that he was the person who killed Chima with pestle,” the source said.

A source close to the scene of the incident also alleged that the Abakaliki-born suspect bruised the deceased’s body with knife after hitting him to unconsciousness, so as to make it appear as if he was attacked by a third party.

Although the suspect denied the allegation, efforts to get reaction from the police spokesperson of the Anambra State Command, DSP Ikenga Tochukwu, on the matter, proved abortive.