Trader Padlocks Progress of His Fellow Traders Nabbed in Umuahia

"It's past 11pm, I started hearing some crowd noise downstairs with periodic shout of "Aaamen" as the crowd responded with same chorus, "Aaamen."

I picked up my phone and called someone who simply told me to come down and see for myself.


It was a mob and in their midst was this young man whose images you view. He was found with so many fetish items which included 23 locked and some smashed padlocks of different sizes, daga, concoction etc.

This guy had had his two sons as well as his mother die mysteriously and his wife run away. This he confirmed while fielding questions.

Answering my questions on what he does with the padlocks he said they were for protection. But that was far from the truth as he later confessed to locking up his fellow trader at the timber market with two of the padlocks. The man's undoing was that he gave him goods worth 3.5 million naira to which he paid only N1m and decided to cage the man from asking for his balance of N2.5m.

He went ahead to name a certain trader known as Ngige at the timber market as having contracted him to cage other traders in the market. There we saw padlocks tied severally with black and white treads as well as chains. His victims were very many as he started naming them one after another.

At this point, the mob got angrier and were baying for his blood and to avoid what was about taking place, I had to call the state PPRO who dispatched some policemen to the scene.

To think that the young man was the same person I always meet in a nearby pharmacy where I get some household items is terrifying. He looked gentle and harmless as we often exchanged pleasantries.