In a remote village of Amackpu, once lived a man whose name was Ofuchi Nwosis. Ofuchi was a palm-wine tapper and he lived with his family and step brother in homesteads built on the land they inherited from their father. The name of Ofuchi’s step brother was Nduibisi. Ndubuisi was a farmer and he had a son called Nnaji named after his own father. Ofuchi had three children who were all male.These two brothers built their huts at the two extremes of the land handed over to them by their father. When their father was about to die, he called Ofuchi and took the right hand of his brother, Ndubuisi, handed it to Ofuchi meaning Ofuchi should assume responsibility over his step brother.
This was the last assignment the old performed on earth. He said: ‘’if your brother has offended you, forgive him. In him, you have a partner and somebody to rely on; a bunch of broom is always very difficult to break. Be in unity and plan no evil against each other’’. Soon after uttering these words, he surrendered to the cold hands of death.The final words of the old man guided Ofuchi and Ndubuisi’s behaviours towards each other for a number of years. They preferred to live closer to each other, building their huts on the same piece of land their father left behind for them.
They both got married. The name of Ofuchi’s wife was Nne while the name of Ndubuisi’s wife was Ifeoma.Nnaji, Ndubuisi’s only child was growing up in the same compound with the three male children of Ofuchi. When he was old enough to start schooling, he was registered in the school that his other brothers were attending. However, Nnaji was very brilliant at school. He was more brilliant than the three children of Ofuchi. He came out top in every examination in the school and so he was loved by his teachers.
He was so brilliant that he was given double promotion and soon after enrolling in school, he was in the same class with the second child of Ofuchi.There was a time that Nnaji’s teachers in school followed him home to encourage his father to endeavour to send him to the only secondary school which was about five kilometres from their village after the completion of his primary education.The recognition of Nnaji’s brilliancy began to create animosity and envy at home. Ofuchi decided to give a gap between his wife and that of his brother.
It was at this period that Ofuchi remembered what he was told concerning his mother’s death. He was told that his step brother’s mother was responsible for the mysterious death of his mother. He therefore decided to take revenge on Ndubuisi by killing his only child, Nnaji.He thought of a plan of poisoning Nnaji since his children and Nnaji ate together as family. He went to the house of the herbalist to collect poison. On the day he had planned to execute his diabolical plan, his wife had prepared the food of the children as usual before going to the market. Unknown to her, Ofuchi went to put poison in the food he thought Nnaji would eat since he was always the first to arrive from school.
On this day, Nnaji was a bit delayed at school and Ofuchi’s first child, Ike was the first to arrive home hungry. He picked the food and hurriedly ate it. Soon after, Ofuchi and his wife arrived and met Ike holding his stomach crying for help. The people in the village heard the noise and rushed into the house, Ofuchi could no longer hide his emotion. He started crying, recounting how he went to procure poison from a herbalist to kill Nnaji, his step brother’s son. The villagers were comforting him, trying to hold him but his brother demanded that he should not be comforted because ‘’he reaped what he showed’’.
