Venerable Julius Dike, an Archdeacon of St. Paul’s Anglican Church, Abayi-Ariaria, Aba, Abia State, his wife, Blessing Dike, and their maid, have died under mysterious circumstances.
This newspaper gathered that Dike and the other deceased held a crusade within the church premises on Sunday, attended gathering on Monday, but could not come out on Tuesday for morning worship.
Worried by the absence of their priest and family on Tuesday morning, some members of the church as gathered decided to visit his apartment to know what was wrong, as there was no single person from his household to answer any question.
It was gathered that the church members who became apprehensive, wondering what was stopping them from coming out even after the morning worship, broke into Dike’s residence only to find him dead with his household.
According to sources at the church, circumstances surrounding their deaths have thrown the Anglican community in Aba into deep mourning, as no one seems to know what really happened to them.
The source who chose anonymity said that the couple had, ate and retired to bed together with their house maid who is said to be a relation of the wife of the priest.
According to the source, although the source of their death was still yet to be ascertained, all fingers are pointing towards food poisoning, as all ate from same food on Monday night.
The source said that the tragedy would have been worst had the children of the Archdeacon have been in a boarding school were at home to taste from same food that allegedly killed their parents.
The source lamented that neither the Archdeacon nor his wife and maid complained of ill health prior to their retirement previous night.
