***as another suspect dies after beheading sister, child
The Enugu State Police Command has confirmed two separate gruesome murder incidents that occurred on May 15, 2026, in different communities within Igbo-Etiti Local Government Area of the state.
The incidents involved the alleged murder of a mother by her son and the alleged killing of a woman and her child by the woman’s brother.
The Command’s spokesman, SP Daniel Ndukwe, disclosed this in a statement issued to Journalists in Enugu.
According to him, in the first incident, police operatives attached to the Igbo-Etiti Division, at about 3:10 p.m., responded to a report alleging that one Anikwe Onyebuchi, aged about 40, used a cutlass to behead his 60-year-old mother, Felicia Anikwe, at Nkporogwu Ukehe Community.
“The corpse and severed head of the deceased were recovered and taken to the hospital, where doctors confirmed her dead. The remains were thereafter deposited in the mortuary for preservation and autopsy,” the statement read.
Ndukwe added that the suspect was rescued and rearrested from an angry mob that had severely beaten him before he was taken to hospital for medical treatment.
He said a full-scale investigation into the incident had commenced.
In a separate incident reported the same day at about 3:18 p.m., operatives of the Command’s Distress Response Squad stationed at Ekwegbe Junction along the Ugwuagu/Opi/Nsukka Road responded to a distress call alleging that one Joshua Eze used a cutlass to sever the heads of his sister, Nwabuche Eze, and her little daughter, Favour Eze, at Agu-Ekwegbe Community in the same Igbo-Etiti LGA.
The police spokesman said the remains of the deceased victims were recovered and taken to the hospital, where doctors confirmed them dead, after which the corpses were deposited in the mortuary for preservation and autopsy.
“The suspect was also rescued from an angry mob in critical condition and taken to the hospital, where doctors later confirmed him dead. His corpse was equally deposited in the mortuary,” Ndukwe stated.
He further disclosed that preliminary investigations revealed that after allegedly murdering the victims, the suspect buried their remains in a shallow grave alongside a dead white cock, suggesting possible ritual motives.
The Commissioner of Police in Enugu State, CP Mamman Bitrus Giwa, condemned the barbaric acts and directed the Deputy Commissioner of Police in charge of the State Criminal Investigation Department to commence comprehensive investigations into the circumstances surrounding both incidents.
The CP also urged members of the public to refrain from taking laws into their hands by resorting to jungle justice, irrespective of the provocation, and instead report criminal suspects to the police and other lawful authorities for appropriate action.