From Okey Sampson, Umuahia
Wonders, they say, shall never end. It was like a fairy tale or a scene from a horror movie on Saturday, June 18, when scary incident happened in Aba, the commercial hub of Abia State.
A man took a lady to his office and they did not come out until after four days, when the police, with the help of neighbours, forced the office doors open to behold an unconscious man lying beside the decomposing body of a lady.
What happened? The man’s name was given as Prince Innocent Ukaumunna, a real estate agent parading a fleet of cars with customized number plates bearing his sobriquet, “JahPriest.”
He had his office on the third floor of a four-storey building designated as No. 7, Factory Road, by Eziukwu Road Junction, Aba.
According to a source, another tenant in the same building, JahPriest received streams of visitors in his office every day, including ladies of all sizes and shapes.
So, on Tuesday, June 14, neighbours who shared the same wing of the complex with JahPriest were said to have seen him entering his office with a lady supposed be in her late 40s or early 50s.
The source revealed that there was no time the man or his female visitor were seen leaving the office at the close of business that Tuesday, neither was he seen days later.
However, after some days, an offensive odour began to pervade the building without anybody knowing the particular office it was coming from or the cause. When the odour became unbearable, neighbours conducted a search and found out it was coming from the office of JahPriest.
Getting JahPriest to open his office to find out about the offensive odour was impossible as all his phone lines were said to have been switched off.
Neighbours were confused; nobody could hazard a guess as to what happened. Even those who saw JahPriest walk into his office on that Tuesday morning did not suspect any danger.
One of the occupants of the building disclosed: “We never suspected that anything bad would have happened to the man and his female visitor until on Friday, June 17, when the offensive odour covered the entire complex and it became unbearable.
“When the offensive odour became unbearable, we were forced to close early that Friday from work. We equally notified the caretaker of the building for him to take immediate action to save lives.”
The caretaker reportedly swung into action as requested and was said to have got across to the man’s wife after a series of phone calls.
The caretaker and JahPriest’s wife were said to have gone to Aba Area Command of the police to make an entry. It was gathered that two policemen followed them to the complex and when they broke the door of JahPriest’s office, the man and his guest were lying motionless inside.
Initially, it was thought both of them were dead, but a closer look revealed that, while JahPriest was still alive, the woman had died and was already decomposing. It was indeed the source of the stench that had made life unbearable for neighbours for days.
A witness said: “Initially, the two bodies looked lifeless but a closer look revealed that JahPriest was still alive, but the lady had died and the body started decomposing, which was the source of the offensive odour that enveloped the entire complex for days. But the man, having not eaten for days, was looking very weak and frail and he was brought out with a stretcher.
“The man and wife did something that surprised everyone. As the office doors were forced open and the man was found alive with the dead lady in office, the wife shouted, ‘Thank You Jesus that my husband is still alive’, while the man asked for a bottle of chilled soft drink. But when he was stretchered to a clinic at the basement of the complex, he became deaf and dumb, or so he feigned.”
However, tongues have been wagging about how a man who was conscious to the point of requesting for a bottle of soft drink, could not alert neighbours or the police to rescue him, but decided to stay with a decomposing body of a lady for four days in his office. Again, people are wondering how a man who requested for a bottle of soft drink could suddenly become deaf and dumb.
This has led to people coming up different versions of what might have caused the lady’s death and the man allegedly staying with her decomposing body in the office for those number of days.
The first version was that the lady could have died as a result of marathon sex with JahPriest inside the office. However, this version seems not to hold water as both of them were still dressed when the office door was forced open.
The second version was that the lady could have been killed for ritual purposes and the man decided to stay with the body for days alone to complete a ritual circle. Those in this school of thought reasoned that, if not for ritual purposes, why would a man who was still conscious when his office door was forced open and requested for a drink not alert neighbours or the police to rescue him, if not to accomplish his diabolical desire?
But as things stand now, nobody can say with certainty what actually happened, except JahPriest, who was said to still be speechless since the incident.
When the decomposing body of the lady was brought down from the man’s office, a large crowd gathered and a mob reportedly wanted to lynch JahPriest but for the intervention of the policemen who took him into custody.
The decomposing body, said to have been identified by her relatives, was later evacuated to the morgue, while police intensified investigations.
Police public relations officer in Abia State, Geoffrey Ogbonna, confirmed the incident to newsmen. He said the man was still in an unstable condition and not talking, adding that police were waiting for him to regain consciousness to enable him say exactly what happened.
Ogbonna said police were investigating to know the cause of the woman’s death, and the level of the man’s involvement, if at all he had a hand in her death.
