A 25-year-old man, Tochukwu Madu,
has set himself ablaze after a failed
attempt to kill his mother with a
cutlass.
The tragedy, which occurred on
Wednesday, also led to the razing of their
bungalow situated on No. 12 Bonny Street
in Umuahia, Abia State.
Part of the building, located at the heart of
the state capital, serves as stores for
traders, who have converted the street to a
mini-market after the relocation of the
Umuahia Main Market from a nearby
location to Ubani.
According to an eyewitness and a tenant in
the building, Mrs. Precious Madu, the
culprit, a notorious Indian hemp smoker,
attacked the mother around 10:30 pm after
locking her up in their two-room
apartment.
Another source said he inflicted
several deep cuts in the mother’s
head and upper arm until she slumped
and pretended to be dead before he
left her to kill their dog, which was
barking inside the compound.
But before he could return to complete
his mission on the mother, the woman
had managed to escape through the
window.
The culprit was said to have made a move
to slaughter his elder brother whom he had
also locked up in another room, but the
brother was smart enough to escape
through the ceiling.
The police were quickly alerted by
neighbours who noticed the strange
development.
When the police arrived the scene and
started searching for the suspect, he was
said to have disappeared into one of the
rooms in their house where he securely
locked up himself.
He was said to have poured fuel on himself
and set himself on fire that also gulped the
entire building.
“As the police were looking for him and
could not see him, what we noticed
suddenly was that smoke started coming
out from one of the rooms. Before it was
broken, the whole house was already up in
flames.
“When finally, the door to the room was
broken, he was found burning and efforts
to save him proved abortive as he died
immediately as a result of severe burns,”
the source said.
Mrs. Madu (tenant), who said she lost all her
property to the inferno, appealed to the
government and public-spirited individuals
to come to her rescue and that of other
tenants, adding that nobody could save a
pin from the house.
When Southern City News visited the scene
of the incident on Thursday, charred cloths
and tailoring materials were observed in
one of the rooms, which served as a
workshop for a tailor.
The rooms were also littered with burnt
household items and personal belongings
while the roof of the house was damaged
by fire.
Meanwhile, the mother is currently
hospitalised at the intensive care unit of the
Federal Medical Centre, Umuahia, where
doctors are still battling to save her life,
following deep machete cuts inflicted on her
by the deranged son.
An officer of the state fire services, Mr.
Chukwuemeka Okezie, who helped to put
out the fire, told our correspondent that if
not for the timely intervention of his men,
the fire would have spread to other
buildings in the neighborhood.
He called for quick and united action against
drug abuse and Indian hemp consumption,
especially among youths and observed that
drug abuse had been on the increase
nationwide.
When contacted, the Police Public Relations
Officer, Mr. Ezekiel Onyeke, confirmed the
incident, describing it as ‘very unfortunate’.
Onyeke said the wounded mother had
been responding to treatment and
appealed to parents to report any of
their children or wards suspected to
be consuming any form of hard drug to
the law enforcement agents for
necessary actions to avoid any form
of colossal damage .