Trouble started when a tenant simply identified as, David was attacked by a landlord and his family for allegedly owing electricity bill.
As the tenant was being beaten, one of the landlord’s sons, Tochukwu, stabbed the tenant with a knife from the back and the knife pierced through and surfaced at his stomach. He slumped and died.
It was gathered that before the stabbing, the landlord’s daughter had earlier hit the tenant with electric pressing iron on his face which made him to lose his teeth.
Noticing that the tenant has died, sympathisers and passers-by mobilised into a mob and set five houses and a car belonging to the landlord ablaze.
Consequently, tenants who lived in some of the houses quickly removed their properties before the mob set the entire houses ablaze despite efforts made by the police to stop them.
When Contacted, the Ogidi Divisional Police Officer, DPO, Mr. Hassan Musa confirmed the incident adding that the landlord has been arrested and case file transferred to the State Intelligent and Investigation Bureau, SIIB, Awka for further investigation.
He said the team from his division tried to stop the angry mob from destroying or setting the houses ablaze, but they eventually scaled the wall through the back and set them ablaze
The DPO noted that the corpse of the victim has been deposited at Iyi-enu Morgue, while the police have declared a manhunt for the suspect and his sister that hit the deceased with a pressing iron
As at the time of filing this report, some tenants were seen packing their properties out of the premises under Police watch.
