Like the ‘Aluu four,’ where four undergraduates were set ablaze by angry villagers, a 16-year-old was wrongly accused, brutalised and had iron inserted into his anal part before being burnt to death by irate youths in a village in Cross River State. With his assailants at large, and the police, as well as the state government, claiming ignorance of the killing, his distraught mother fears that the case might go into oblivion like many others in the country yet to get justice, Tessy Igomu reports
As the sun dipped below the horizon on November 19, 2021, life suddenly took an ugly turn for Anthony Okpahefufe, a 16-year-old, living with his grandmother in Cross River State.
On that day, life was snuffed out of the senior secondary school student in the most brutish manner by an irate mob in Alifokpe Yache, an agrarian community in the Yala Local Government Area of the state.
Like bloodthirsty vampires, the assailants, mostly youths, bayed for the blood of Okpahefufe, whose only crime was being friends to two teenagers that allegedly robbed a grocery store on a local market day known as Ogidi.
PUNCH Investigations learnt that Okpahefufe, who was at home helping his grandmother, Helen Ibu, with chores when the robbery took place, was beaten to a pulp, dragged to the market square almost naked and dehumanised by having a rod passed through his anus.
It was learnt that despite pleas from his grandmother and a priest in charge of the village catholic church, Patrick Orem, to spare the teenager’s life, the mob wrapped Okpahefufe and the two unnamed young men in petrol-soaked tyres and set them ablaze. It was further learnt that the perpetrators never left the scene until the bodies were burnt beyond recognition.
However, weeks after Okpahefufe was murdered without trial, PUNCH Investigations gathered that feeble attempts were allegedly made by the police to bring the perpetrators to book.
Discreet investigations showed that while only a police post was sited in Alifokpe Yache, there was no single police presence. This was the same for the eight surrounding communities, while the Yala Police Division is quite some distance away.
Pauline Eromosele is Okpahefufe’s mother and she resides in Lagos. When she was traced to a secluded part of Ajah, our correspondent met a broken, distraught woman. She was in pain and deeply mourning Okpahefufe whom she described as “the son of my youth.”
The woman, who struggled to keep her two female toddlers in check, had an unkempt appearance, sighed intermittently and consistently exhaled deeply throughout the interview.
A broken mother’s desperate cry for justice
Pauline’s experience is not one any mother would ever wish for. It took quite an effort for her to narrate the events that led to the gruesome killing of a son she described as an embodiment of talent.
She said the loss of Okpahefufe brought with it a crippling sense of loneliness and misery of insomnia.
“He was quiet and had great plans for me. He was an obedient son and ensured that my mother never lifted a cup without his assistance. Anthony was studying hard to take his final secondary school examination,” she said in a raspy voice.
With tears cascading from bloodshot, swollen eyes, the mother of two demanded justice for her murdered son from the Cross River State Governor, Ben Ayade; Inspector General of Police, Usman Baba, and well-meaning Nigerians.
Though the killing of Anthony took place in Cross River State, Pauline painstakingly recalled the raw details of his murder as recounted by her aged mother, whom the teenager lived with from age five.
The grieving mother told our correspondent that her son’s father, Anthony, whom he was named after, died when she was six months pregnant. She recalled suffering throughout the pregnancy and being abandoned by everyone, including Anthony’s family members.
Pauline said as soon as her son turned five, she took the most difficult decision to leave him in her mother’s care and relocated to Lagos, to get a job to fend for them.
“Life in the village was hard, so I had to leave for Lagos. My mother struggled to take care of us. The pain of losing my son is too much to bear. My heart is shattered. I suffered to have Anthony. No one helped me. All the elders in the village and his father’s family members abandoned me. Now, they have killed him because he didn’t have anyone to fight for him,” she said, shuddering with sobs.
Killed for no reason
Pauline said on that ill-fated day, she got an alarming call from her mother around 6.30pm, that an angry mob stormed the compound, overpowered her and dragged Okpahefufe away.
She revealed that her mother was beaten and stripped naked by the youth as they tried to take away the frightened teenager. Pauline said the old woman ran after them and watched helplessly as they brutalised and later set her grandson ablaze.
She told our correspondent that it was at the village square that her mother learnt about the robbery.
Pauline said her son was not present at the scene of the robbery but claimed that the youth, allegedly led by the store owner, (name witheld) insisted on having him killed because the alleged thieves were his friends.
She said, “My mother told me that they passed a rod through his anus and burnt him alive with the other two. He was not given the chance to explain himself. My mother became hypertensive after seeing how they killed her grandson. She is traumatised. It is only God that is keeping her alive.”
PUNCH Investigations learnt that after the killing, the youth denied family members access to Okpahefufe’s remains and allegedly went ahead to bury them in a primary school.
The battered and bloodied face of the teenager as he pleaded for mercy in the hands of his attackers as well as the grisly scene of the incident was well captured in pictures made available to PUNCH Investigations by Pauline in Lagos.
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The culprits are well known
Pauline said her son’s killers are well known in the village and claimed that one of them was her brother-in-law, (name witheld).
“My step-sister. My mother told me that while they were beating Anthony (Okpahefufe), the man said he should tell them where he gets all the nice clothes that he wears if he is not a thief. That was a man that should ordinarily protect my son. I usually buy clothes for my son and mother in Lagos and parcel them to Ogoja, where they are picked up. The week that he was killed, I packaged clothes to send to them,” she said.
Pauline reeled out the names of those allegedly involved in the murder of her son, as sent by her mother.
She said, “My mother identified some of the perpetrators and the police have their full names.”
PUNCH Investigations learnt that apart from the owner of the shop that was allegedly robbed, others are at large.
Exploited by the police
Pauline revealed that when the matter was reported at the Police Area Command Headquarters in Ogoja by Okpahefufe’s grandmother and a relative, the policemen told them to fund the investigation.
She said, “My mother couldn’t report the matter that day to the police because she was very weak from the beating she got from the youth. When she did, the police requested N30, 000, claiming that their vans were faulty and that they needed two vans to arrest the suspects. I also paid for copies of pictures taken at the scene of the murder.
“The police went to the village and arrested two brothers of one of the culprits. The officers said they were directed to the first house at the village entrance and that if they had gone inside after making the initial arrest, they might be attacked on their way out.
“Since then, they have refused to return to the village and mandated the elders to produce culprits. The elders were only able to take the shop owner to them and since then, no other person has been arrested. The police have continued to demand money from me. I paid for the upkeep of the two young men in detention. I have spent all that I have on this case already. Nigerians should help me to get justice for my son.”
A hysterical Pauline said she was told by policemen investigating the case to pay for it to be transferred to the Cross River State Police Command Headquarters in Calabar.
When Pauline, who is now married to a man from Edo State, was asked why she did not take Okpahefufe along to live with her in Lagos, she said she brought him in 2016 but that her husband was not favourably disposed to it.
I was stripped naked – Grandma
When a call was put across to Okpahefufe’s grandmother, Helen, she was overcome by emotion. The elderly woman confirmed that she was beaten and stripped naked by the youth.
She said, “My husband and other villagers begged them to leave him alone but they refused. My grandson is not the type that wanders around and doesn’t keep friends. I have not recovered from what happened. I have been having severe pains in my stomach. I can’t eat or sleep because I keep seeing the crying face of Anthony. Those that killed my grandson can run but can’t hide from the wrath of God.”
One of the victims held my white cassock with bloodied hands pleading for mercy – Catholic priest
The priest in charge of Mater Ecclesiee Catholic Church, Alifokpe Yache, Patrick Orem, witnessed the bloodcurdling incident and described Okpahefufe’s death as unfortunate.
He said as of the time he was alerted and got to the market square, Okpahefufe and one of the boys had been killed, while the remaining one held onto his white cassock with bloodied hands and pleaded for help.
“I was shaving around 6pm, when a parishioner came to tell me that some thieves were caught in the market. I thought it was a minor case. Around 9pm, someone came to tell me that two of the thieves had been killed and that the youth were about to kill the third. I quickly dressed up and went to intervene as a concerned cleric. I didn’t want any other life to be wasted.
To my greatest shock, I saw the corpse of two young boys and Anthony was one of them. When the remaining boy saw me, it was like hope rekindled. He held my garments with his bloodied hands and begged for his life to be spared. I pleaded and preached to the angry youths to leave him but they refused.
He added, “They told me to go to my house and that the place was not a church. The boy was clinging to me and they were dragging him. I appealed with them to take the case to the elders and they asked me if it was the elders that told the boys to steal.’’
The priest said he was still traumatised by the incident, adding, “It was the worst thing to happen to me. It left a deep wound in my conscience and my blood pressure went up.”
Orem appealed to the state government to allow the law to take its course if the perpetrators were apprehended.
He added, “There is no police presence here. I was trying to delay them from killing the boy, hoping that help would come. I became disappointed at the end of the day. Justice should be served, so that people will realise that they should not take the law into their own hands.
Jungle Justice in Nigeria
Mob action, better known as jungle justice, is not new to Nigeria. It has become a silently accepted norm with victims alleged to have committed crime violently killed without fair trial by the mobs.
All it takes, in most instances, is for an individual to raise the alarm about theft, kidnap attempt or any other crime and a crowd, which balloons with time, would beat the accused to stupor and set the person ablaze.
Sadly, this barbaric act of being the judge and the jury, which had brutally cut short many dreams, was linked by experts to Nigerians losing trust in security agencies and suppressed, chronic anger of the people towards an exploitative political system.
A clinical psychologist with the Federal Neuro-Psychiatric Hospital, Yaba, Olawunmi Oluwatosin, said society, culture, level of exposure and educational background could trigger mob action.
