TVC E. The Commissioner of Police, CP, of the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, Police Command, Mr. Mohammed Mustafa, has confirmed the arrest of a 35-year-old man, Thomas Matthew, who strangled two of his children to death as sacrifice to his father.
Matthew, a resident of Mountain village opposite Dantata Camp, Asokoro, Abuja, claims his late father initiated him into an occult group, adding that his father appeared to him and commanded him to sacrifice his children to him on different occasions.
The CP said his wife, Bola, reported the matter to the police station on October 7 when the incident took place.
According to reports, the suspect had previously killed their 2-month-old son by strangling him to death last year and October 7th, 2016, he strangled their four-month-old daughter, Mary, to death.
The wife was also said to have explained that he had tried to kill their son, 9, in the past and luckily she caught him in the act then sent her son away to her mother’s home for him to be taken care of there.
The Commissioner said with the help of a sign language expert, Bola told the police how the suspect tried to kill their first son.
“Then I had another son last year. When he was two months old, he became sick. My husband killed him in September 2015. I didn’t know until he confessed. This year I had our daughter.
“In the night of October 7, 2016, we were together in the house when suddenly he started beating me. I got injured and ran away to his elder sister’s house.
“Before I came back with his sister, he had strangled our baby to death. He locked the door and ran away.
“The doctor said the baby was dead. Now I have only one son left, Josiah. It was only God who saved me from the power of darkness,” Bola lamented.
Matthew, during interrogation, said “I got married to my wife, Bola, and we were blessed with three kids. My father is a cultist and he initiated me into the occult.
“My father asked me to offer the children as sacrifice and mark of honour to him, promising he would make me become rich.
“It was a covenant that nobody knew, even my wife. My father gave me conditions that if anybody got to know or I revealed the covenant, that the covenant would be destroyed.
“From the time I had my first child, my father began disturbing me to offer my child to him as a sacrifice. I tried to kill my first child by strangling, but my wife caught me and reported to the police and her mother came to take the child away from the house.
“He has been staying with her in Mararaba. Later my father appeared to me after I had my second son, John, who became sick. I strangled him to death in 2015.
“On October 7, 2016, my father appeared to me again that I should kill my only daughter. I was with my wife and then I started beating her and she ran away to my elder sister’s house and I locked the door and strangulated my four-month-old baby girl and she died.
“I locked the entrance of the house and ran away. It was the youth in my area that arrested me and handed me over to the police. I wanted to kill my younger brother according to my father’s instruction.
“My father is still alive and he is in the village in Benue State,” the suspect, who hails from Kwande Local Government Area of the state added.
The CP, however, added that investigation was ongoing and the suspect would be charged to court soon to face the wrath of the law.
