By George OPARA
The traditional ruler of Ochia autonomous community, Eze (Barr) Ekwueme Ekwueme Cyprian was burned to death at Assa, a neighbouring community, few kilometers away from his kingdom enroute to Owerri, capital of the state.
Spear News learnt the tragic incident happened yesterday about 12noon.
Causes of the gruesome murder are yet, sketchy.
But eyewitnesses said the deceased just returned home from abroad, stayed few weeks in his Owerri residence. On that ill-fated day, he went in company of some security operatives and personal aides to hold a peace negotiation with some community’s stakeholders and palace chiefs.
On his way back, he rammed into a battery of irate youths waiting in ambush who in commando-like fashion, discharged their weapons and burned him with others to death as their vehicles somersaulted.
Reliable sources told Spear News that the murdered monarch was living in utter disconnect from most of his people following an unresolved frosty relationship dated to 2007.
Pointedly, it was disclosed that the late traditional ruler was presiding over an oil-rich community, hosting waltersmith Petroman Oil Ltd with headquarters at Ikoyi, Lagos, where he was allegedly appropriating accruing economic benefits ranging from royalties, contracts, job slots and festival bonuses to only himself, family and cronies with a divide and rule system that culminating in abject poverty to a greater majority of the people of the area.
As at the time of filing this report, police was said to have evacuated his remains to an undisclosed morgue and, had swooped into investigation to unravel those behind the barbaric action while uneasy calm looms large in the affected community and beyond.
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