Shock was the word yesterday in Awkuzu, Anambra State, as 29-year-old Ekene Ucheagwu confessed to killing his 65-yr-old mother Agnes in her home at Ogbunka in Orumba South Local Government Area of Anambra State. What is more, Ekene also confessed to burning his mother’s body, claiming to have done so out of frustration.

Speaking to reporters during a security parade by men of the Special Anti Robbery Squad (SARS), Awkuzu, Ekene said:

“I had to kill my mother because she was using witchcraft to block progress for her surviving four children.”

Ekene claimed that his mother did not allow the spirit of God to come into their family. His words:

“Once she cursed anybody, that person will never progress and she was doing it to my brothers and sisters very often.

“I am the only one among her six children (two later died) that knew her secrets. My elder brother, who is 45 years old, is yet to get married and nobody in our area agrees to marry any of my sisters or their daughters to marry any of us.

“When I confronted her by calling her ‘queen of the coast’, she tried to kill me, having known that I knew her secrets and that was why I decided to kill her first.

“I hit her head with a big stick at night and she slumped and died and I carried her in a wheelbarrow that night to the Obukwu bush in my community where I burnt her body to ashes.”

The suspect who is a cobbler by profession further said that after some days of the murder of his mother, some people in the community, who did not see her, began to suspect that something terrible had happened, but they could not prove anything. He said that when he could not explain the whereabouts of his mother, the villagers unanimously banished him and drove him out of their community.

Ekene disclosed that he fled to Aba, Abia State, where he continued with his business until men of SARS arrested him.

According to him, his late mother never got married, adding that she had all her six children in her father’s house and the name they are answering is her maiden name.

He said that having realised the enormity of his action, he was regretting killing his mother, although he insisted that when the “kingdom of God finally comes, people will realise that I did the right thing.”

The Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), Anambra State Command, Mr. Uche Eze, who paraded the suspect, said that investigation into the matter was continuing.

•Photo shows mom killer Ekene Ucheagwu.