“About 3p.m when my friend and I entered my street returning from school, I sighted my grandmother walking opposite my direction, she was holding bag and walking towards our house with one Agbangbanyan son following her closely. As I ran to assist her take the bag inside, I accidentally hit my foot against a stone.
“Then my grandmother was approaching the gate, suddenly, I saw the Agbangbanyan son who was wearing blue jeans trouser and a light milk shirt raised his shirt, brought out a short gun and shot my grandmother on the back and ran away.
“My grandmother fell down, I ran and raised her shouting mama stand up!, mama stand up! Help! Help! Help me!, mama looked at me, shook her head, I begged my grandmother not to die.
“One brother now rushed out from our house, joined me and my friend to carry her in Keke Nape (tricycle) to hospital where they said she was dead”.
That was Joy, an 18-year-old secondary school student narrating how her grandmother Mrs Clara Uwaifo, 65, a retired headmistress was shot dead by a neighbour whose family has been at loggerheads with the Uwaifo’s.
When our reporter visited the residence at 27, Oviawe Street, Off Upper Siluko Road, Ogida, Benin-City, shortly after the killing last Wednesday, sympathizers besieged the compound.
The deceased, a widow and mother of five was said to be returning from a hospital where she had gone to see her daughter who put to bed when the she was killed with impunity.
She was said to have left the hospital with the intention to go home to prepare some food for her nursing daughter.
Mrs Uwaifo retired as headmistress, Uwelu Primary School, Uwelu last August.
Joy however traced the history of the quarrel between the two neighbouring families to the day a member of Uwaifo family entered the compound of the Agbangbanyans’ to pick their fowl that strayed into the premises.
She alleged that members of the Agbangbanyan family started accusing her slain grandmother and her children of being responsible for the death of their daughter one Oghomwen, who died in Indian.
It was further stated that no member of the Uwaifo family lives in Indian let alone knowing residence of the said Oghomwen as the three male children of the Uwaifo’s reside in Ghana.
The Uwaifo family said following the frequency of threat to kill their grandmother, a petition was written through their lawyer to the commissioner of police, as nobody was invited for interrogation.
Inside sources however linked the incident to cultism as the male children of the Uwaifo alleged to belong to a rival cult group of that of the Agbangbanyan’s.
It was alleged that the crisis prompted the three boys to flee to Ghana as ever since they left, the aggression shifted to their mother.
The Agbangbanyan’s was alleged to have carried out a bloody attack on the Uwaifo household prompting a perimeter wall fence round the building.
Attempt to obtain comments from the Agbangbanyan’s failed as the family compound was deserted when our reporter visited last Thursday.
The Public Relations Officer, Edo State Police Command DSP Osifo Abiodun while confirming the murder described the suspect as a teenage cultist and serial killer on police wanted list.
“Information reached us that a woman of an average age was killed by a cultist. Before police arrived there the cultist was already on the run.
“This young man call Happy Agbangbanyan is a serial killer who is involved in so many cult related violence and killings.
“I think his cup is full, we are on his trail”. DSP Osifo stated.
The suspect, said to be between 18 and 19 years was alleged to have also shot and kill one Ebo and two others in Ogida quarters recently.
