Tenant sets house ablaze, kills landlord, wife

A tenant of a house on Asuquo Eyo
Street, Ifa Ikot Okpon, Uyo Local
Government Area of Akwa Ibom State,
identified simply as Ime, aka Shawa, has
been accused of killing his landlord and
the wife and also setting the house
ablaze.
It was said that Ime, 40, had attacked his
landlord, Mr. Edem Akpan and his wife,
Affiong, with matchete before setting the
house on fire.
One of the daughters to the late couple,
Ms. Emem Akpan, told our correspondent
that trouble started when her father gave
Ime a quit notice.
She said Ime had threatened that if her
father insisted on sending him (Ime) out,
he would kill him and burn down the
house.
She said, “We thought it was just a mere
threat. None of us could believe that Ime
was capable of doing what he said.
“Two days ago, we saw him bringing worn
out tyres into the compound. We didn’t
know he had a plan.
“Yesterday (Sunday), before we left for
church in the evening, he brought 20
litres of fuel, more than what his
generator could contain.
“A neighbour asked him what he wanted
to do with such quantity of fuel, but he
told him that he was going to run the
generator overnight.
“This is what we saw this morning as we
returned from church – the fuel and worn
out tyres were weapons used by the
assailant to kill my parents.”
Another daughter and ex-girlfriend of
Ime, Ms. Ruth Jeremiah, said she parted
ways with Ime a year and three months
ago.
She said it was because Ime did not let
her know his parents and his surname
that made her to terminate the
relationship.
She said that for the three years she
dated Ime, she did not know anything
about him except his alias – Shawa.
“I decided to end the relationship with
Ime because he was not straight forward.
He wanted to marry me, but whenever I
asked him to take me to his people, he
would refuse,” she said.
She stated that Ime had removed his
property in the house before killing her
parents and setting the house ablaze.
Asked if there was tenancy agreement
which could lead to the arrest of the
assailant, Jeremiah stated that there was
nothing like that as the father offered Ime
his house based on a gentleman’s
agreement.
Efforts to get the Police Public Relations
Officer, Akwa Ibom State Police
Command, Mr. Etim Dickson, to speak on
the matter, proved abortive as calls and
texts to his telephone were not replied.