A mob at Itam Timber Market, Uyo, the Akwa Ibom state capital intercepted a father with the corpse of his dead son concealed in a carton while attempting to dispose of the body at a waste dump site close to the the market.
The suspect was said to have been monitored by some inquisitive persons who suspected the content of the carton he was carrying as he headed in the direction of the dump site located across the timber market.
An eyewitness who pleaded anonymity, said the man was accompanied by his two male children who were minors before he was accosted by the mob within the market area.
Narrating the incident to our reporter, he said some angry market men caught the man and brought down the suspected carton from his head before they discovered that it contained the lifeless body of his child naked but neatly wrapped with torn clothes.
In a video now trending on social media, the man was seen engaging those who caught him in a fight as they forced him to remove the corpse from the carton.
In the video, the corpse of the fair complexioned child was seen dangling in his left hand, while he used the right to exchange blows with his accusers who claimed he was a ritualist before the police intervened at the scene.
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A statement issued by the Akwa Ibom State Police Public Relations Officer, ASP Timfon John and made available to journalists in Uyo on Tuesday night, identified the suspect as an indigene of Anambra State.
The statement reads: “On the Itam incident, what happened is that a gather of three boys was intercepted by the police at Itam with a dead boy and two living boys.(sic)
“Upon investigation, the man told the police that all three boys are his.(sic). And that in his tradition, deceased males (sic) are not buried outside their community. So he was taking the dead son to the billage in Anambra State to be buried (sic).
“The police had since deposited the dead boy in the morgue and investigations are ongoing.”
The police while ruling out the allegations of murder for now, however added that investigation was ongoing to establish the facts of the matter.
“Please note that the said man didn’t kill the boy,” she said in the statement.
