A 22-year-old boy, identified simply as Godwin from the Elebele community in Ogbia Local Government Area (LGA) of Bayelsa State, has stabbed his mother to death after an alleged attempt to use her for ritual purposes failed.

According to community sources, the suspect returned to the community a few weeks ago after spending months in a neighbouring state at a popular Yahoo boys’ training camp, referred to as HK.

Reports suggest that a pastor in Elebele had forewarned the deceased mother about the impending danger and advised her to reject any strange gifts from her son.

It was also claimed that the suspect exhibited strange behaviour upon his return, distancing himself from childhood friends and alleging that a “Baba” had informed him that his destiny and wealth were being held back by his mother.

The Youth President of the Elebele Community, Comrade Precious Okala, confirmed the incident to newsmen on Monday.

He said his attention was drawn to the incident around 6 pm on the fateful day and upon arrival at the scene, the bloodied corpse of the deceased woman was discovered while her son was tied up by the youths of the community.

“We were told that since the boy came back from this particular state, he has been behaving in a strange manner. On the fateful day, he was reported to have had a struggle with the mother and stabbed her with a knife in the stomach.”

“The boy was heard saying that one ‘Baba’ had told him that his mother was in possession of his destiny and wealth,” Okala said.

Another youth from Elebele, who pleaded anonymity, told our correspondent that the suspect’s strange behaviour included distancing himself from childhood friends and cooking for his mother, which the deceased reportedly refused to eat.

The suspect was handed over to policemen from the Kolo Division of the Bayelsa State Police Command.

The spokesman of the state police command, Musa Mohammed, confirmed that the case has been transferred to the State Criminal Investigation Department (SCID) for detailed investigation.