ONAKAHOLO – A 31-year-old man who serves as a priest in the Roman Catholic Church at Rundu, is expected to appear in the Ohangwena Magistrate’s Court today for allegedly killing his three-year-old niece and assaulting his six-year-old nephew, who is now in critical condition.
He is facing charges of murder and attempted murder.
The alleged incidents occurred on Friday at Onakaholo in the Ohangwena region. No motive has been established yet.
It is alleged that the suspect arrived in the village on Thursday to attend celebrations marking 100 years of the arrival of Catholic missionaries in Oshikuku, which took place at the weekend.
The head of Ohangwena’s crime investigations’ unit Zachariah Amakali said the priest entered the room where the two children were sleeping.
He said the children were hit against the floor, which caused them to sustain severe injuries that led to the girl’s death. The boy is currently in hospital in the intensive care unit, where he is fighting for his life.
The suspect was arrested, and taken to hospital for observation and treatment.
When New Era visited their homestead, the suspect’s mother Blandina Haundapiti narrated that at around 07h30, the suspect woke her up, and alerted her of the attacks.
“He called me so that I could see what had happened. When I went out, he took me to the victims’ room,” she said.
When she went to the room, she saw the two children laying on the ground in a pool of blood.
Furthermore, the mother said last year when the suspect was attending a mission at Swakopmund, she received a call from his fellow priests.
“They informed me that my son is not feeling well, and as a result, he is showing signs of being mentally unstable,” she added.
Haundapiti said she did not panic then because her son’s colleagues had assured her they would handle the situation.
“I didn’t notice that my son was battling with mental illness, even though it was discovered by his colleagues. I can’t believe what he did because he was not violent,” said his mother.
Meanwhile, a 12-year-old boy who lives in the house where the incident occurred said he feels fortunate because he was not sleeping in the bedroom with the victims at the time the attack occurred.
“If my uncle had found me in the bedroom, I would also have been a victim,” the boy said with tears in his eyes.
The boy added that he is the only child left at their homestead, and is hoping that his cousin recovers.
The constituency councillor of Ongenga Mathew Shikongo, who is from the same village where the attack took place, expressed shock, stating that such incidents had never happened in the village before.
Meanwhile, neighbours were left speechless by the incidents because that’s not how they knew the suspect, and could not believe that he had turned into a violent person.
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