The police command in Ebonyi says it has arrested a middle-aged man, Chibuike Ochie, for slaughtering his sister-in-law, younger sister and a labourer in the Uburu community, Ohaozara local government area of Ebonyi.

The police spokeswoman in Ebonyi, DSP Loveth Odoh, confirmed the killings in a statement issued in Abakaliki on Monday.

Ms Odah said the killing took place on Sunday in a farmland in Obegu, Uburu.

The police disclosed that the man killed his sister-in-law, a younger sister and a hired labourer working on their farmland.

“He succeeded in macheting Ogechi Ochie, 32, and wife of the elder brother and the younger sister, Margaret Ochie, 35 years old and the said labourer. The three persons were macheted to death on that farm, and he escaped,” said the police statement. “In the process of fleeing the scene, irate youths of that area caught and mobbed him. As I am talking to you, he is still critically ill to the extent that he is placed on a life support machine. The investigation is still on, but it will be properly done when this man survives.”

The police, however, urged the public not to take the law into their hands.

“That is why we keep discouraging the youth from taking laws into their hands, especially when a person commits (an) offence like this. If they had brought the person to us, he would have told us the reasons he had to do this to his family members, and he would have faced the law,” the police explained. “But in this case, a lot of money is being spent to revive him. The incident took place at Obegu farm in Uburu. According to the DPO who visited the place, he said the farmland is about 25km away from Uburu town.”

(NAN)