Herbalist set ablaze for killing tenant in Cross River

A herbalist in Ikot Abasi Effiom in Akpabuyo local government area of Cross River State, Ette Okon Friday, was on the night of Tuesday, May 12, set ablaze by youths of the community for allegedly murdering a commercial motorcycle operator popularly called 'Okada', Itoro Titus, following an argument.

According to sources, the okada man was Friday's tenant and the disagreement that led to his murder stemmed from the dead of Titus' pregnant wife who took ill and died a week after child birth.

The herbalist was said to be angry that instead of his tenant consulting him to cure the woman, he decided to seek the help of orthodox medicine, which led to death of his wife.

It was as a result of the disagreement that the angry native doctor reportedly slashed the throat of Titus.

According to the slain okada man's cousin, Rita Emmanuel, the landlord was not happy that Titus ignored him and sought other means to cure his wife when he could help, and only came to him when the matter was already out of hand.

"On Tuesday morning, my cousin’s wife had epileptic seizures and his landlord said he could treat it. So Itoro went to his mother from whom he obtained N5,000, then gave the money to the landlord to treat the woman.

But after collecting the money, the native doctor assured Titus that his wife would get well soon.

But when the deceased returned home from work at about 11 pm, he found his wife in a worse state, despite assurances of his landlord and demanded to know from him why his wife was not improving.

He asked the herbalist why his wife was getting worse, when she ought to be improving since the man had been given the money he demanded.

The man did not say anything. He simply went inside his shrine, brought out a machete and cut Itoro’s throat."

A youth of the area narrated that they heard shouts of pain that night, they rushed to the herbalist’s house and met Itoro in a pool of blood.

"The herbalist began threatening us with the blood-soaked machete, which angered the youths. We got hold of him, cut his throat, dumped him inside the shrine and set the place ablaze.

His body has been eaten by dogs, which he deserves because we cannot understand why he should kill a young man for asking why the state of his wife, who he was treating, was getting worse rather than improving."

The Divisional Police Officer for Akpabuyo, Luis Samba, said the matter had been transferred to the homicide unit at the Police Command headquarters in Calabar and the Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), in the state, Hogan Bassey, confirmed the incident, saying that the matter was being investigated.