The 29-year-old man, Mathias Amunde Ugwe, who was accused of murdering his mother, Mrs Justina Amunde, and dumping her body in a well in Ohong community, Obudu Local Government Area of Cross River State, has been apprehended.
TORI reported that the victim’s body was recovered from a well on December 28, 2025.
It was gathered that a combined team of the IPO, SA Security to Obudu Local Government Chairman, Chairman of the National Youth Council of Nigeria, Obudu Chapter, and men of the Nigerian Police Force, Batriko in Eastern Boki Local Government Area, arrested the suspect.
A publisher, Elijah Ugani, who confirmed the arrest in a Facebook post on Friday, January 10, 2025, said that an anonymous source hinted that the victim was m8rdered and her hair shaved for rituals.
The security operatives also apprehended the ritualist who instructed the suspect to shave his mother’s hair and bring it to him.
According to reports, Mrs Amunde attended the Christmas vigil on the 24th of December 2024 and came back very late. She then locked all the doors in the house without any knowledge that her own son had connived with his friend and hid themselves in the store, waiting to commit the crime.
“A few hours into the night, the house help who stays with late Mrs Justina Amunde, went to the kitchen to get drinking water, found out that the k!ller Mathias and his friend were hiding in the store,” a source said.
“The house help then raised the alarm and the victim came to the rescue of the girl. Unfortunately for her, her own son, Mathias, started hitting her with a heavy hammer, after dispossessing her of cash.
“When he noticed that his mother was no longer breathing, his friend assisted him to carry the corpse and dumped it inside a well in the compound.
“Having deposited her corpse in the well, they ran out of the house with the house help to Boki Local Government Area and threatened her not to disclose the incident to anyone.
“But the house help escaped to Utanga, Obanliku Local Government Area to meet her parents on the 27th of December, 2024. The girl then narrated her ordeal to her parents, who later contacted us. We then found the corpse in the well on the 28th December, 2024”
It was also gathered that the suspect has a fractured leg as a result of an accident he had a few years ago.
