10/02/2018

Ozubulu Church Massacre: Witness Reveals In Court How He Was Invited To Be Part Of The Killer Squad

A prosecution witness yesterday told an Anambra State High Court sitting in Nnewi how he was invited to be part of the killer squad that went on a shooting spree at Saint Phillips Catholic Church in Ozubulu on August 6,2017.Thirteen persons including Chief Cyprian Otuadimma Ikegwuonu, father of the chief target of the shooting, Aloysius Nnamdi Ikegwuonu alias Bishop, were killed during the incident.
Twenty nine other persons were wounded.
The witness, Chukwujekwu Eze, said he was asked by one Okpanda to join in executing a job at
“Okpanda told me that they going to the Bishop’s place at Ozubulu to execute a job. I asked him the nature of the job and he told me that they were going because Bishop was owing some people some money in South Africa,” Eze said, while being led in evidence by the prosecution counsel, Jay Jay Ezeuko, SAN.Facing trial are: Great Chinedu Akpunonu, 44; Vincent ke, 57; Chukwudi Ugwu, 30, and Onyebuchi Mbanefo, 46.

They were arraigned on a 24-count charge in Suit No: HN/36C/2017 bordering on conspiracy and murder.
Other suspects are said to be at large.
Eze, who claimed to have lived in South Africa for 11 years before he was deported and rendered unemployed said: “He (Okpanda) said they wanted to go and destroy everything in Bishop’s house and shoot at every living thing.
“I asked him who was sponsoring the job and he told me it was Obrocho.
“Okpanda invited me so he could explain the whole thing to me and when I went the following day, he told me it was only if I took part in the job that he would help me go back to South Africa.
“It was in Okpanda’s place that I met Dobby (Onyemaechi Mbanefo), the fourth accused and two of them tried to convince me to join in the job. I refused to join.
“After the shooting in the church, I saw Okpanda again and he told me that they had done the job. When I asked if he could help me since he had made some money, he told me he couldn’t help me since I refused to join in the job.
“I then told him I was going to approach Bishop since I didn’t have any other person to help me. He told me not to go to Bishop because the Bishop would arrest me.
“I later decided to approach Bishop because of the level of massacre in the church in which Bishop’s father was among those killed.”
Under cross examination, however, counsel to the first accused person, Festus Keyamo (SAN), asked if it was not his desire to return to South Africa that made him approach Bishop after the shooting
He further put it to him that Bishop might have already concluded arrangement for him to travel to South Africa.
Eze denied that Bishop had made arrangement for him to travel, adding that he didn’t even have any international passport.

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