Man Butchered Over Land Dispute

The protracted land tussle between the people of Iviukha in Weppa Wanno and Ikpele in Okpekpe clan of Etsako East local government area of Edo State has reportedly claimed the life of a middle-aged man identified as Oseni Ekhameye, who was said to have died from severe machete cuts inflicted on him by thugs hired by a prominent community member.

One of his wives, Umoru Otsemobo, who was said to be from Ikpele Community, is now receiving treatment at the University of Benin Teaching Hospital (UBTH) after surviving several machete cuts from the machete of her husband’s killers.

LEADERSHIP FRIDAY, yesterday, gathered that the incident which happened on Sunday was as a result of built-up tension over the ownership of farmlands which Ekhameye and his kinsmen claimed ownership of.

The unsuspecting Ekhameye was said to have hired some labourers from his community to help till the parcel of land that fateful Sunday morning, unknown that death was looming.
His assailants were said to have visited the farmland earlier and uprooted the crops he had planted a few days earlier.

His wife had gone to the village to make the report of the incident when she overheard some men making plans to attack her husband. Immediately she left her house, she was followed by a prominent member of the community with three sharpened cutlasses.

She was close to the farm, about a kilometre from the village, to inform her husband of the plan to attack him, when the assailants apparently lurking in a nearby bush attacked the late Ekhameye and the other labourers who were busy on his farm, under the supervision of a member of the community. The assailants inflicted deep cuts on his head and other parts of his body.

They also descended on his wife and would have killed her, if she had not feigned death, but for rescuers who came and rushed them to a hospital in Agenebode, where her
husband later died and she was transferred to the UBTH.

The incident created tension in the Ekhameye’s Community, as youths in the area threatened a reprisal attack. The leaders of the community have cautioned the youths from embarking on a reprisal attack and called on the led on the police and state government to intervene in the matter and ensure that justice is done.
The Edo State Police Public Relations Officer, DSP Moses Eguavoen, confirmed the incident yesterday.

“It was a reported case of inflicted injuries but the victim eventually died while receiving treatment. The case was first reported at the Agenebode Division before it was transferred to the state CID. Arrests have been made and the police will ensure that justice is done and those who are found culpable prosecuted accordingly,” Eguavoen assured.

- Leadership

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