50-Year-Old Pastor Dike Ocha Of The Assemblies Of God Church Beaten & Burnt To Death, After Mutilated Body Of A 6-Year-Old Girl Was Found Beside His House.

50-year-old Pastor Dike Ocha of the Assemblies of God Church in Kankia Local Government Area of Katsina State was beaten and burnt to death by a mob last Tuesday after the mutilated body of a six-year-old girl was found beside his house. The girl, Fatima Yusuf, had been missing for four days. Narrating her story, wife of the deceased Mrs. Favour Ocha said: “I teach in a private school owned by the chief of Igbo in the area. I was with his wife when he called her on phone asking where I was. She told him we were together. Then he asked her to tell me not go to my house. He said my husband had called him on phone asking him to come immediately, that he was being stoned by some people.”


Continuing, she said: “On getting to the place, he saw that the condition was critical so he rushed to the police station and called the police. They went in their vehicle, rescued my husband and took him to the hospital. He ended the call by saying that the people were at the police station and that the case had been resolved.” Mrs. Ocha said two other calls after his left her more panicky. “I was disorganized, confused. I carried that baby and began to look for the other one in pre-nursery class. The chief called his wife again and said we should find our way to the police station. That was when we knew that the case was not a minor issue.”

Mrs Ocha, who said she managed to reach the police station, added that despite being told of her husband’s condition, she never lost hope that he would pull through. “When the army came to the place, they asked if we were complete and I told them that one of my daughters was in secondary school. They took me to the school and we picked her alongside other Christian children. “When we returned from the school, I saw an ambulance in front of the police station; I was tempted to go and peep but decided not to. When I entered this time, I saw people crying. I never knew they were crying for me because they all knew that my husband had died. One of the women even said, ‘Aunty Favour since you don’t want to cry, I will help you and cry.’ I never understood the meaning until they broke the news.

“Finally they told me that they had killed my husband. They told me that the same set of people whom he was saved from after being beaten, still went to the hospital, dragged him from the bed to the main road and set him ablaze. That is how I lost my husband and my house; nothing was left, not even a pin,” said Mrs. Ocha, who insists that her husband remains innocent of Fatima’s murder. While calm has returned to the community, Ocha’s wife has continued to call for justice. Mrs. Ocha said: “I am pleading with the government, they know that this thing was not done by my husband. They should not hide the truth. They should find out those people that killed my husband and give them the necessary punishment due for them. And not only that, they have shattered and disorganized my life. Let them do justice to this issue.”

The young girl’s mother however questions who could have killed her little girl. In an interview with Weekly Trust, Hauwa Yusuf narrates her last moments with her daughter. “On the morning she went missing, I dressed her up and she left for school at about 7.30am like she usually does. She didn’t eat the food I prepared, she didn’t have dinner the night before either; but I never gave it much thought because sometimes children are like that. It was as though she had sensed something was going to happen.” Fatima was a primary 1 pupil at a school which required her to walk some distance and cross a major road everyday; her mother said that she never failed to return home on time.

“They usually close at 12pm and she returns not too long after. Her uncle, Sulaiman, crosses the road with her and he even watches as she heads home. But on that day, it was about 12.30 and she had not returned, so I began to worry. After Zuhr prayers, her father returned from a naming ceremony. He asked me to cook some food for him; then he asked if his daughter had returned and I told him no. “I do not know why I did not bring it to his attention as soon as he arrived that Fatima had not returned. It was like something just stopped me from saying it. He left to find Sulaiman who told us that he had crossed the road with her and watched her walk towards home; little children who were playing in houses nearby said that they saw her walk towards home, but she never got to the house,” Hauwa said.

She said she was informed days after Fatima had gone missing that her daughter’s corpse was found inside the pastor’s house located on Kano road in Low Cost, which is not far from the Mashasha settlement where they reside. “For four days we looked for her. We made announcements everywhere. And on the fifth day, her corpse was found inside the pastor’s house. I was told that an almajiri went into the house to beg when he saw my daughter’s lifeless body still in her hijab but her school trouser had been pulled off,” she said.

According to Abdul Salam, Fatima’s grandfather, the almajiri ran out of the house in fear. “He came to call me because he knows me. I usually give them alms. I went to the pastor’s house along with three others. I saw the pastor standing over the corpse. We did not want to take the law into our hands so I went to call the ward head,” he said. Abdul Salam said by the time they returned to the house, people had already gathered. “I don’t know what happened after then because I left the place. Somehow, the girl’s mother had heard what happened and she came there but fainted immediately she saw the crowd. We took her to the hospital and left the spectators there,” he said.

He, however, added that he had no idea when the youths beat up the pastor or what happened afterwards. On the day the incident occurred, Katsina State Police Commissioner, Muhammad Hurdi, said the pastor was rescued from the mob and taken to a hospital but some of them followed him there, attacked his rescuers and set him ablaze. Hurdi said, “We know fully that the pastor could not have been responsible for the death of this girl. Any reasonable person will believe it is the work of mischievous elements who want to frame the pastor or the work of a rapist. The pastor was attacked because he happened to be close to the place and probably because some people do not agree with his activities or religious orientation. He could not have been so dumb to commit the act and leave the body beside his house,” Hurdi added.

Weekly Trust gathered that two apartments, which are side by side, are said to have been rented by Ocha. According to Ocha’s neighbor, who did not want to be identified, Ocha and his family occupied one of the houses, while he (Ocha) transacted his businesses in the other house where Fatima’s corpse was found. The neighbor said: “Eze Lawrence was the one who brought him to this town and he got him the house. He was his best friend. In fact they were even together in the house where the corpse was seen. You know Lawrence sells building materials.

“The day before the corpse was found, the pastor was seen with a digger and shovel and people wondered what he would be doing with those things. He is not a builder after all. Anyway, on that day, I left home at about 8.00am. I was going to our family house when I received a phone call telling me there was unrest around my house and that I should rush back to ensure my house wasn’t affected. “After a while, I received another call telling me the corpse of the missing girl had been found in the pastor’s house and that she had been slaughtered. The person also told me that the houses in low cost were on fire so I rushed home. But by the time I got there, I met a lot of people. The pastor’s house was already on fire and I was told that he was beaten while Lawrence had run away.”

According to the police, Ocha’s house was burnt alongside a church and Lawrence’s house. Several persons have already been arrested in connection to the incident and Hurdi assured that perpetrators of the act will be brought to book. Meanwhile, the district head of Kankia, Musa Hassan Sada, narrated how he and several others tried to manage the situation before the arrival of security operatives. “I thought it was a normal argument but when I got there I met some people with sticks. I told them not to take the law into their hands. I learnt that the girl was killed by ritualists. I told them that ritualists operate everywhere. We have Muslims and Christians amongst ritualists, so you cannot pin point and say this was done by the pastor. In this circumstance no one can tell who killed the girl.

“I was informed that irate youths attempted to burn the church, so I rushed there; but each time I arrive at a place they want to torch, they run away because they cannot perpetrate any evil act in my presence. I sat in front of a house occupied by Yoruba Christians for over two hours, I told them no one would attack the people or destroy the house. I left after soldiers arrived. The district head described the incident as unfortunate, adding that such an act is alien to Kankia.

“I think the pastor was at the wrong place at the wrong time. Only God can say who killed the girl. The youths are very erratic, the problem is that most of them are unemployed and you know that an idle mind is the devil’s workshop. We have never had a problem with settlers or Christians. I have assured and promised them that it will never happen again.”