Youths of Ikot Abasi Effiom in Akpabuyo Local Government Area of Cross River State, Tuesday night, set ablaze a herbalist, Ette Okon Friday, after he allegedly slashed the throat of a commercial motorcyclist (okadaman) identified as Itoro Titus, following a misunderstanding.
The deceased was the suspect's tenant.
According to Rita Emmanuel, cousin to the slain okadaman, trouble started when the okadaman's wife, Ndarake, took ill a week ago after giving birth to a child that died a few hours afterwards.
Late Titus was seeking a cure to her ailment, when his landlord said he could help.
Emmanuel said: "On Tuesday morning, my cousin's wife had epileptic seizures and his landlord said he could treat it. So Itoro went to his mother from whom he obtained N5,000, then gave the money to the landlord to treat the woman."
She said after the herbalist collected the money, he assured the deceased that his wife would get well soon.
Vanguard gathered that when the deceased returned home from work at about 11p.m., he found his wife in a worse state, despite assurances of his landlord and demanded to know from him why his wife was not improving.
He lost first wife
A source said: "Last year, Itoro lost his first wife after she gave birth to their second daughter. So he was worried that his second wife, who is taking care of the two children, was going to die again.
"He asked the herbalist why his wife was getting worse, when she ought to be improving since the man had been given the money he demanded.
"The man did not say anything. He simply went inside his shrine, brought out a machete and cut Itoro's throat."
A youth of the area, who gave his name as Monday, said when they heard shouts of pain that night, they rushed to the herbalist's house, the direction the shout came from, and met Itoro in a pool of blood.
'How we killed him'
He said the herbalist began threatening them with the blood-soaked machete, which angered the youths. He said they got hold of him, cut his throat, dumped him inside the shrine and set the place ablaze.
He said: "His body has been eaten by dogs, which he deserves because we cannot understand why he should kill a young man for asking why the state of his wife, who he was treating, was getting worse rather than improving."
Mr. Luis Samba, Divisional Police Officer for Akpabuyo, said the matter had been transferred to the homicide unit at the Police Command headquarters in Calabar.
Spokesman of the command, Mr. Hogan Bassey, said the matter was being investigated.

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