Houseboy Murders His Boss With Pestle During An Argument

A houseboy is accused of murdering his employer with a pestle in Awka, the capital of Anambra State.

Chima Anolue, a lecturer in the Psychology Department at Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, was hit with the pestle during a disagreement with a domestic helper.

According to reports, the incident occurred on Friday night, July 14, 2023, at Ifite village in Awka.

The suspect was also accused of bruising the deceased’s body with a knife after he was unconscious to make it appear as if he had been attacked by a third party, according to Punch.

Sources claim that when the houseboy was apprehended by the local security, he admitted to striking his late boss repeatedly with a pestle after being queried regarding why he hadn’t completed his domestic chores.

Chima smacked him when he didn’t respond, which sparked a battle in which he ultimately killed his boss.

“When he came back, he told me to cook rice. And as I was cooking the rice, he asked me why I did not wash my plates. I did not reply. He then asked why I wasn’t responding to his question,” the suspect said.

“In the process, he slapped me. But I told him I usually have ear problems, and that people don’t slap me. As I was saying that, he angrily asked if I was still talking while he was talking. And therefore, he slapped me again and brought out a cane and started flogging me all over.

“Then in the process, I got angry, and we started fighting. It was also in the process of that fight that I picked up the pestle in the kitchen and hit him on the head.”

During interrogation, the houseboy initially denied killing his boss but eventually confessed after being savagely battered when his movements became suspicious.

A family source said, “While friends and relatives of the deceased were taking him to the hospital that night for medical attention after the encounter, the suspect was attempting to choke him to death right inside the vehicle where he was sitting close to him allegedly to conceal his atrocious acts. It was in the process that we discovered what was going on and therefore we started suspecting him. As that was going on also, the victim who was still alive then, used his last strength to mention the suspect’s name, before he finally gave up the ghost,”

“In his confessions, the suspect first said that it was the girlfriend of the deceased who visited him that night that attacked him. However, he eventually confessed that he was the person who killed him with a pestle.”

The body of the deceased Chima has been placed at the morgue for an autopsy, and the suspect, who is reportedly from the Abakaliki region of Ebonyi State, has since been turned over to the Nigerian Police Force’s Awka division for further questioning.

Friends and coworkers have been mourning him on Facebook in the meantime.

“Chima was my brother. A wonderful chorister and a fine choir leader. He comes from one of the finest families in Igboukwu, his parents have loved me like their son right from my days as an undergraduate,” one Arinze wrote.

“Chima my brother went viral yesterday not because of all the fine virtues bestowed upon him by God…

“But because he was gruesomely murdered by his houseboy just because my brother scolded him for letting the food on fire get burnt.

“Not once, not twice but three times this animal hit Chima with a pestle on his skull.….Chima wasn’t kidnapped, he didn’t have a road accident neither did he die in his sleep.

“His beautiful young and promising life was cut short right inside his home by a person he housed, clothed, fed and paid. I don’t know how I feel or have felt since yesterday.”