BENIN CITY — The house in Agbor Park, Ikpoba Hill, Benin City, now stands as a silent monument to fear. Its doors are broken, its rooms are empty, and the blood of a young man named Joseph stains its history—the victim of a cult vendetta that authorities failed to stop.
On New Year day, 2020, the violence that had haunted the family since 2009 finally claimed a life. Two assailants scaled the fence under the cover of darkness, armed with axes. They bypassed other rooms, seeking out Joseph with surgical precision, and hacked him to death in his bedroom.
”It would have been a harvest of bodies if the others hadn’t escaped,” a family source whispered, terrified that even speaking to the press might draw the killers’ attention.
The roots of this tragedy are as senseless as they are deep. It began with a romantic dispute between Joseph’s brother, Emwrunwa Scottson Esosa, and a secret cult member, named Osaze Izekor, over a relationship with a young girl, Pattra Johnson. The relationship which later led to the pregnancy of Pattra. Osaze was mad as he claimed that Pattra is his girlfriend and that Esosa will only be forgiven for dating Pattra, if he is initiated into their secret cult group.
When Esosa and his cousin refused to settle the matter by joining the notorious secret cult, they were marked for death. Since 2009,
Esosa and his cousin, Precious Eriseye have lived like fugitives, while those left behind endured constant harassment and intimidation as they have been attacked on multiple occasions over the years, even up to 2018, an attack by the daredevil cult members, left Esosa’s son injured and Esosa’s mother severely traumatized leading her to abandon the house since 2018, until this latest January 1, 2020 attack that claimed the life of Joseph.
Despite a paper trail of police reports and desperate pleas for intervention, the family says their cries fell on deaf ears. With Joseph’s death, the family has finally scattered, leaving their home to the dust. The cultists, however, say they are not done. Their message remains clear: the hunt for Emwrunwa Scottson Esosa and Precious Eriseye is till on as the cult group have vowed to fish them out
