Daughter of slain man says ‘suspect kept my father’s pictures like a trophy’

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By Ike Uchechukwu, CALABAR

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A Calabar family has been thrown into mourning after 74-year-old Okon Bassey Okon Ansa was found dismembered in Ukim Ita, Odukpani LGA of Cross River State.

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His daughter revealed that the suspected killer kept her father’s photos “like a trophy in his room with other items belonging to him as well , which were later discovered by police”

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Basseyanwan Okon Bassey told Vanguard the last time she heard her father’s voice he called her “Mma Teacher,” his favourite name for her.

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“My dad had complained of waist pain and run out of medication, I arranged food and medicine before leaving on a trip and did not see him alive again” Bassey Awan said.

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On returning to the community, she said, rumours of a murder led her to her father’s home where she found the door open, the floor covered in water and bloodstains on the walls.

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“Seeing my father’s lifeless body dismantled into pieces made me faint several times, I was not myself,” she said.

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Police discovered the elderly man’s head buried in a shallow grave and his body in another, both concealed beneath plantain and pineapple suckers within a neighbour’s compound.

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Recall the suspect was later arrested as confirmed to Vanguard by Police spokesperson, ASP Sunday Eitokpah, and investigation continues to ascertain how many persons he had killed.

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The head, already decomposing and covered in ants, was later reunited with the body at the mortuary.

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The police recovered photographs of the victim and Basseyanwan’s wedding portraits, and the cap her father wore at her marriage ceremony from the suspect’s house.

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“He kept my father’s pictures like a trophy, this was planned for years ”

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The prime suspect, identified as 30‑year‑old Akaniyene Ignatius Eshiet of Ikot Ekpene, Akwa Ibom State, is accused of killing at least two people and reportedly confessed to 30 murders, police said.

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His girlfriend, Uduak Essien, has been arrested. A brother of the suspect, who fled the scene with a firearm, remains at large, heightening fear in the community.

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