Man sets himself ablaze after failed attempt to kill mother in Abia state

                 

The entire residents of Bonny Street in Umuahia, the Abia State capital of Nigeria were on Wednesday thrown into shock as a 25-year-old man, Tochukwu Madu set himself ablaze after a failed attempt to kill his mother with a cutlass.

The bizzare incident also led to the razing of their bungalow situated on No. 12 Bonny Street, which part of the building 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. Continue...

An eyewitness and a tenant in the building, disclosed that 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 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 while the mother seized the opportunity and managed to escape through the window.

The police were quickly alerted by neighbours who noticed the strange development but when 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, 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.

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.