Mr. Linus Ibe, husband to the two deceased women, told Sunday Telegraph at his country home in Umuhu Ukpor that he married his first wife, Late Mrs. Mary Rose Iheabumk in 1983, but she left his first son, Ebuka, after 7 months, for her community in Ebe Umuogbeanu Ibe Village, Ukpor, where she stayed till she died.
He said before she died, the family paid him his five hundred naira dowry, which he paid on her head. According to him, she left and was remarried to one Christopher Okafor before she got sick and later died. The brothers took her to the morgue and came and asked him to come and bury her but he refused.
According to him, the matter was reported to the police, the traditional ruler of Ukpor, the president general and the oldest man in her village. The matter lingered till she died because he insisted that she is no longer his wife since they have returned the dowry to his family.
He said, “I married my late wife, Hope Ekwitosi Ibe, who had five children for me, although four died remaining only one. I wedded her at St. Marys Catholic Church, Ukpor, and lived with her till she died recently.
“When she died, I decided to bury her on Friday. On that day, while his second wife’s people came and dug the grave for their sister, the family of Mary Rose brought her corpse in a van with two bags of cement and bag into my compound.
They dropped the corpse in front of my house and went into the palour where my wife was laid and carried the corpse, scattered the casket and forced their way to the grave already dug for my second wife.
They lowered their sister into the grave and wanted to cover it.
“It was at this juncture that trouble started, crisis ensued, leading to a free for all. I narrowly escaped through the window, took a bush path and rushed to the police station where I reported the incident”.
The prompt intervention of the DPO and his colleagues saved the situation from being bloody as youths from his first wife’s family were brandishing machetes and other dangerous weapons, chanting war songs.
Meanwhile, Mr. Ibe, an employee of Anambra State Government and Senior Fore-man in the Works Department, Nnewi South Local Government, according to some of the elders in Umuhu Community who spoke to our correspondent but did not want their names mentioned, Mr.Ibe has been banned from communicating with anybody in the seven communities of Ukpor town till further notice
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