It was a moment of shock and disbelief for residents of Jacob Beredugo Street, Off Osiri road, Yenagoa, Bayelsa State capital following the discovery Thursday – yesterday, January 23 – in his own residence, of the skeleton of a Pastor, Esere Okilo, 15 months after he was said to have gone missing.
Okilo, a fiery preacher aged 45 from Nembe- Bassambiri was declared missing in October 2023 after he was not seen by family members and neighbours.
However, on Wednesday night, a female relative who had been battling accommodation problems decided to look through the deceased toilet window and found his skeleton with a singlet on, in a sitting posture on the toilet seat.
Consequently , she raised an alarm which attracted residents of the area, who came only to be confronted with the horrifying sight of the skeleton of the deceased who, they thought, had been missing, in his own house.
Some of the residents who expressed surprise at the twist to the deceased’s disappearance saga said it was strange that nobody in the area perceived the odour of a dead body.
They were also critical of the elder brother who stays in the other flat with his wife but who was not on talking terms with the deceased.
According to them, the elder brother stopped talking to his deceased brother because he referred to him and his wife as a bewitched duo.
Eyewitnesses said policemen from Ekeki Police Division had since gone to the house to evacuate the remains of the deceased as at the time of this report in the evening of yesterday .
The Policemen were also said to have arrested the senior brother over the suspicion that he covered up the death of his brother because of their beef.
Police sources said preliminary investigations from the morgue at the Federal Medical Centre, Yenagoa indicated that there were signs that a chemical named formalin was sprinkled on the corpse to stop the foul smell.
