Richard Ginika Izuora
The body of a yet-to-be-identified woman has reportedly been discovered in Amachara Community in Umuahia South Local Government Area of Abia State.
Though information about the incident is still sketchy, sources in the area however said that members of the community on sighting the bag called in police as fear couldn’t allow them to go near.
A source from the area who gave his name as Gilbert said that the body of the deceased was found near Amachara General Hospital, Opposite Assemblies of God, Umuokpara in Umuahia South LGA.
“From what we were told, there was an unverified report that some herdsmen will be attacking some communities (Amaogwugwu, Umuagu, Umudiawa, Ofeme among others) in Umuahia North Local Government Area of the state.
“So, when the people saw the huge item near a field in the area, they got scared of the size of the sack.
“At first, they taught it was a bomb and on second thought, they thought it could be someone’s wares that fell off from a moving vehicle, but because they weren’t sure and wouldn’t want to take chances, they had to call in Police from Amankwo Police Station who came and later took away the corpse to an unidentified place.
“No member of the community was able to identify the body as a member of the community.”
The State Commissioner of Police, Ene Okon, disclosed that the earlier information that the police had was that the people feared that the parcel was a bomb.
Ene said that in response to the distress call from the area, the Ordinance Explosive Device (OED) were sent to the area to inspect the parcel, diffuse and evacuate the said item from the community if found to be bomb as alleged.
According to the State Police Chief, the Bomb Squad on getting to the scene, and carrying out inspection discovered that it was not a bomb as the people had alleged.
“When the bomb squad was sure that the item isn’t a bomb, they went ahead to open it. It was at that time that they discovered that it was the body of a woman that was wrapped in the sack bag.
“From close observation, it is suspected that it is a case of murder. There were marks on her neck that showed that she may have been strangled to death and dumped in the community in a bag.”
Ene said that the body of the deceased has been deposited at the Federal Medical Center (FMC), Umuahia as an investigation into the matter was ongoing.
He said that until the time of the report, no one has come either from the community or elsewhere to identify the woman.