The abducted Sole Administrator of the Ideato North Local Government Area of Imo State, Mr Christopher Ohizu, has been beheaded by suspected gunmen.
The council boss who was kidnapped last Friday, alongside two others, and his houses set ablaze was butchered on Sunday after his abductors allegedly received N6 million as ransom.
Video of his beheading surfaced online on Sunday, where his killers insisted that there would be no election in the southeast of the country.
The video showed a man they identified to be Ohizu; his hands were tied backwards and kneeling in a forest. He had on just trousers.
A voice in the background of the video was heard disassociating the killers from the Indigenous People Of Biafra (IPOB) and its alleged militia arm, Eastern Security Network (ESN).
Before going ahead to slaughter Ohizu, the male voice threatened that the Imo State Governor, Hope Uzodimma, would be the next to be killed by them.
“Hope, hear the voice once again, Hope, Hope, Hope, I only called you three times, Hope hear the voice once again, you see this man kneeling down, Hope I know you most know this man (sic). I want you to watch the video, watch it very well, the way I am killing this man is the way I will kill you very soon.
“You think moving around with soldiers will solve the problem. Hope I thought you are a sensible man, I didn’t know you are a foolish idiot, you don’t know what you are doing,” he said.
Speaking further, the unidentified man accused Governor Uzodimma of sponsoring Boko Haram terrorists, saying “you people are the ones equipping them. You people entered Kuje prison and released captured Boko Haram fighters and gave them uniform, armed them with ammunition and sent them to Igboland to kill our brothers thinking that you are killing unknown gunmen.”
He added, “…we are not ESN, we are not IPOB, we are a set group of people that have seen what has been happening in this land and said enough is enough that we must fight to make sure that Biafra is restored.
“Hope, whether you people like it or not, when the eastern region is concerned, there is no election and there will be no election in the eastern region, we can’t accept that, rather, you people will be dying one after the other.”
A source from the LGA, who did not want to be named, disclosed that the killers of the Sole Administrator published videos of the beheading with the phone of their victim on his WhatsApp status.
The source said: “The Sole Administrator has been beheaded.
“We saw videos of how he was being beheaded on Sunday.
“His killers posted it with his phone on his own WhatsApp status.
“That was how people got to know that he was beheaded.
“The videos were horrible. He was tied and half naked before he was beheaded. That was a painful way to die.
“They butchered him after collecting N6 million ransom.”
When contacted, the spokesperson of the Imo State Police Command, Henry Okoye, confirmed the incident, simply saying: “Investigation is ongoing.”
The slain Sole Administrator was kidnapped on Friday alongside two others after burning his country home at Imoko community in Arondizuogu area of the LGA.
Ohizu was shot before he was taken away.
