He, however, said, "The police arrested him and took the boy's corpse to Aboh Mbaise General Hospital. It is an abomination.'' "He has been threatening to kill people but we did not take him seriously. His wife had to run away when she was threatened," a source at Eze's palace revealed. Speaking to Sunday Trust, a neighbour to Nwaogwugwu, Mrs. Chioma Nwosu, narrated how he soaked his only child, Maduabuchi with fuel and set him on fire, adding that the boy died around 12 midnight.
"On Saturday, May 10, 2014, around 8pm, I was preparing to cook soup when Mr. Nwaogwugwu returned on a bicycle for the first time. I noticed that he was carrying a container of fuel, which he said was kerosene. He later threatened to teach his son a bitter lesson for defecating on his cloth. Subsequently, there was a thick smoke from his compound, after which he emerged with fire on his hand. He threw the flame at his son and ran away.
"And when I asked about his son, Maduabuchi, he replied, 'Are you asking me of the boy that is roasting in the fire?' Unfortunately, before we could rescue the child, he was completely roasted,'' Mrs. Nwosu narrated.
Another version of the story, however, has it that the man had bought kerosene and petrol, and when he attempted to light his lamp, it exploded because he had mistakenly mixed both substances and poured in it. A police source at Itu, who spoke to our reporter added:
"As he battled with the fire, which burnt his hands, he ran out and mistakenly threw the burning rag or whatever was burning his hands on his son who was sitting in the corridor. But because the man is known as a stubborn person, members of the community assumed that he set his son ablaze.''