Man Beheads Lunatic To Bury Father

A middle aged man, Effiong Edet, is currently explaining to the Cross River State Police Command his motive for beheading a female lunatic in Anantigha, in the southern part of the state capital, Calabar, southsouth Nigeria.

The mad woman whose name is unknown was said to be aged about 25 and had her abode at Anantigha Primary School from where she paraded the streets of Anantigha for about a year before she was beheaded by Effiong Edet.

The Police Public Relations Officer for the state, ASP Etim Dickson, said Effiong confessed to the crime, saying he told the police that he beheaded the woman in order to use the body as part of rituals for the burial of his father who was a chief.

According to him, his father deserves to be “honoured” by putting a human head in his grave.

“He also confessed that he soaked himself in alcohol and other illicit drugs to give himself the nerve to carry out the act.”

The police said the man killed the lunatic at about 1.15 am and that after cutting off the head, “Effiong cleverly wrapped the body with an old roofing sheet and dumped it in a dust bin so that it would be evacuated in the morning by sanitation van but was apprehended by a vigilance group.”

Effiong, the police said further hid the head under a communication mast close to the Calabar South secretariat so as to take it in the morning for rituals but for the watchful eyes of residents of the area who apprehended him.

However, a resident of Anantigha and a member of the vigilance group that apprehended Effiong told P. M NEWS that he suspects that Effiong wanted to use the head for money rituals and not for the burial of his father as claimed. “such barbaric traditional practices do not happen in any part of Cross River State any longer. In the olden days it was only the Obongs that were buried with human heads and not just any chief”.

—Emma Una/Calabar