The time-honoured axiom that every day is for the thief but one day is for the owner of the house was made manifest in Ugbene-Ajima community in Uzo-Uwani local government area of Enugu state as a middle-aged man who was said to have been raping their women was banished by youths of the community.
Mr. Festus Ntuga from Ama village, Ugbene-Ajima community was caught allegedly raping a girl of about eight years on Saturday night.
An eye witness who preferred anonymity told WITHIN NIGERIA that “on that fateful night around 9pm, there was ongoing church crusade in our village square. Almost all the villagers were in the crusade arena. Festus Ntuga sneaked into one compound, thinking that only the little girl was in the house. As he jumped on top of the girl, she started shouting and this attracted the attention of her mother who was inside the inner room. Immediately the mother saw what was happening, she herself shouted and Festus ran away with the girl’s handset.”
Narrating further, the villager told our reporter that “the following morning, the mother reported the ugly incident to the youths of the community. Immediately, these youths went to Mr. Festus’ house, recovered the handset and dragged him out to the village square and started molesting him. Before they dragged him out from his house, they forced him to pick all his charms, put them inside a bucket carry them to the village where he given the beatings of his life.”
Our source also revealed that the suspect allegedly started confessing of his past evil deeds in the community.
” As the angry youths started beating him, he begged them not to kill him so that he can confess his evil deeds. He confessed that he was responsible for the death of his pregnant wife who died some months. He also told them that he was responsible for the death of his elder brother in whose house he is currently staying. He equally confessed to have been responsible for the death of his own son. With all these confessions, the youths have no option than to banish him in the community.”
Asked if he had been accused of any evil deed before the unfortunate incident, our source explained that ” before this incident, Festus was known for stealing economic fruits like palm fruits, coconuts and many other economic fruits. But, he has not given this kind of humiliation before. For now, he cannot come back to the community again.”
However, when contacted on phone, the Police Public Relations Officer PPRO Enugu Police command, Mr. Daniel Ndukwe couldn’t pick up his call for confirmation of the incident.