Thirty-five-year-old Thomas Matthew has told a horrific tale of how his
father, who he claimed initiated him into an occult group, appeared to
him and told him to sacrifice his children to him.
In response to the
demand, Matthew strangled his two-month-old son, John Matthew and
four-year-old daughter, Mary Matthew at different times. But his attempt
to also kill his first son, Josiah Matthew, who is nine years old,
backfired.
The horrendous acts were committed in Mountain village opposite Dantata Camp, Asokoro, Abuja.
As Sunday Sun learnt from the Commissioner of
Police, of the Federal Capital Territory Police Command, Mr. Mohammed
Mustafa, the suspect, Matthew strangled his daughter, Mary, inside his
house on October 7, 2016, after beating his wife, Bola, who is deaf and
dumb and chasing her out of the house.
In a brief interaction facilitated by a sign language expert, the wife
who is deaf and dumb recalled how the husband had tried to kill their
first son. She said: “I didn’t know that my husband is a cultist. I
remember when he first tried to kill our first son, I reported the
matter at the Garki Police Station. It was my mother who took the boy
away from the house and he is still staying with her in Mararaba,
Nasarawa State. 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. It was policemen from Asokoro Police
Station, where I reported the case that broke the door and found the
baby. We rushed the baby to Asokoro General Hospital. The doctor said
the baby was dead. Now I have only one son left, Josiah Matthew. It was
only God who saved me from the power of darkness.”
When he spoke with Sunday Sun at the headquarters of the Criminal
Investigation Department of the FCT Police Command, where he is being
held prior to arraignment in court, Matthew corroborated what the wife
said and made other disclosures in explanation of what drove him to
commit the alleged heinous acts.
His words: “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.
Matthew who hails from Kwande Local Government Area, Benue State,
further said: “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,
Nasarawa State.
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 police commissioner assured that the suspect would be charged to court soon.