A girl’s murder tears Delta community apart
FOR Miss Omotejohwo Edah, life ended in a cruel, gruesome and sad manner. Her death in the hands of suspected ritualists on the night of February 19, 2013 sent shivers down the spines of residents of the laid-back Okpara-inland community in Delta State.
The death seemed to have jolted the community out of slumber and galvanised them into probing the mystery surrounding the disappearance of three other persons in the community within four months.
That fateful night when Omotejohwo’s lover, Joseph Onosioyibo, came to their home at Okpkara Inland at about 8.00p.m. to take her out as he normally did, her father, Daniel Edah, did not discern it was the last time he would set his eyes on his daughter. For, according to him, there was no inkling to suggest to him that his daughter, so full of life, would die in such a horrifying manner.
In his modest home at the extreme of the community, just behind Agbon College, a distraught father and mother, flanked by some sympathisers, narrated to The Guardian how the missing girl’s decomposing body was found in a bush near the newly built rail-line near Ovu community with virtually all the vital organs in her body hacked away by her killers.
Edah said: “I have been living with my daughter Omotejohwo. She has a man friend named Joseph Onosioyibo who used to come to the house to pick her and they would go away and later come back. I was always looking at them because I believed they were friends. Then on Tuesday, February 19, 2013, her lover, Joseph, came with a certain small car at about 4.00p.m., discussed briefly with my daughter and left. Later in the evening of that day, he came with his jeep and packed in front of my compound and sat on one of the chairs in the corridor, he greeted me and he told my daughter to get ready that they were going out.”
He continued: “At about 8.00p.m., my daughter finished preparing and they entered the jeep and left. He told me they were going and I bade them good night because that was how they used to go before. The second day, which was Wednesday, I did not see her; Thursday she was nowhere to be found. For about three days, I had not seen her so everyone became worried. So I went to look for the man, someone showed me his compound because I did not know where he lived even though he is from my community. I met him paying people who had supplied him rubber and I asked him ‘where is my daughter that you carried three days ago?’ He told me he dropped my daughter on one junction in the town. Then, I asked him why he had to drop my daughter at the dangerous junction in the night and why he didn’t bring her home where he took her from.”
“I told him to look for my daughter. Then I left him and went to report to the local vigilance group. The vigilance group members said they would investigate, that I should come back that evening. The next day, the vigilance group said the suspect was just arriving home so they could not interrogate him.”
“ I went to the home of one of the community leaders called Chief Omeruo. He, too, was alarmed. He asked me why I had to wait up to four days, that it was not a town man’s business but a police matter. He said I should report to the police immediately.”
When he went back to the vigilance group, they informed him that they had postponed the visit to the suspect’s house again. Edah said he went home and told his second daughter, Miss Ovoke Edah to go to the police station.
“Initially, we went to the Army post at Ughelli to report the matter but the Army personnel there told us it was a police matter not that of the Army,” he recalled.
Edah said: “She went to Isiokolo Police Station and reported to the police. Then my daughter, Ovoke, came back with two policemen. Then, surprisingly, the vigilance group came and were angry that my daughter brought the police that they were already handling the matter.”
The police later arrested the suspect but he was surprised that an affluent man came that same day to bail him.
Edah said the police asked them to give the bailed suspect sometime to find the missing girl.
The third day, they went back to the Divisional Police Officer (DPO) and the suspect, who allegedly claimed to know those whom the late girl was with that night, denied ever saying so and was supported by the DPO who said he never heard the suspect say such.
The family was furious at the way the police at Isiokolo was handling the matter, they told the DPO of their displeasure on the way the matter was being handled and the DPO directed them to the Police Area Command in Ughelli.
The next day, Edah, accompanied by his family members, went to the Ughelli Police Station to report the matter, and the police took their statement again.
Back home in Okpara Inland, the community members were already losing their cool and were very bitter at the lackadaisical manner the matter was being handled, as security agents were not showing any genuine seriousness about locating the missing girl.
The next day, the community residents gathered and staged a protest, wondering why only persons from their community were always missing, that three other persons had been missing in the last four months and had not been seen. Their search was still on when Omotejohwo’s case increased the statistics.
The community women, youths and others protested to the vigilance group, wanting to know why people were missing everyday in the community and the group was doing nothing about it. That even with the fresh case of the missing Omotejohwo, the group kept postponing investigations and not making any effort to invite the suspect to hear what he had would say.
The protesters, The Guardian learnt, seized the vigilance group chairman in the community and interrogated him. But as the interrogation was going on, a combined team of soldiers and policemen stormed the community, shooting heavily, they were invited by other vigilance group members who feared their leader could be lynched.
The invading soldiers, police and vigilance group members wreaked havoc in the community. One person was killed on the spot and three others were injured. Several houses were ransacked and destroyed.
But that was not the end; the home of the Edah was equally visited with terror by the same soldiers, police and vigilance group.
Edah, who was yet to find his missing daughter, got another blow: his house was turned upside down by the invading force. His television set and other valuables were taken outside and destroyed. Edah said they all ran into the bush to save their lives.
He said a few days after the invasion, on March 3, 2013, the news of the discovery of her daughter’s mutilated corpse pervaded the village. They went to the lonely bush where her decomposing body laid to identify her, and behold, she was the one as the dress she wore the day she left was still on her. It was a terrible sight. She laid on her back with her leg and arm stretched out as if she was held to the ground by a number of persons while someone removed her organs as she struggled.
Meanwhile, the lawyer to the family, N. O. Ereh, has petitioned the Inspector General of Police requesting him to use his good office to do justice in the case by transferring the matter, formerly pending at the Nigeria Police, Ughelli Area Commander’s office, to the Delta State Police Command headquarters, Asaba, or from wherever it is currently pending in Delta State, to his office for timely and proper investigation and administration of justice.
The lawyer in the petition, described the matter as a “case of abduction, kidnapping, murder, and unlawful possession of human parts for juju rituals, committed against Miss Omotejohwo Edah by Mr. Joseph Onosioyibo and his gang of ritualists.”
Sadly, the suspect who took the girl out on the night she was murdered didn’t spend a night in a police cell. Despite the seriousness of the matter, he was bailed the same day he was arrested and allegedly walking a free man.
The death seemed to have jolted the community out of slumber and galvanised them into probing the mystery surrounding the disappearance of three other persons in the community within four months.
That fateful night when Omotejohwo’s lover, Joseph Onosioyibo, came to their home at Okpkara Inland at about 8.00p.m. to take her out as he normally did, her father, Daniel Edah, did not discern it was the last time he would set his eyes on his daughter. For, according to him, there was no inkling to suggest to him that his daughter, so full of life, would die in such a horrifying manner.
In his modest home at the extreme of the community, just behind Agbon College, a distraught father and mother, flanked by some sympathisers, narrated to The Guardian how the missing girl’s decomposing body was found in a bush near the newly built rail-line near Ovu community with virtually all the vital organs in her body hacked away by her killers.
Edah said: “I have been living with my daughter Omotejohwo. She has a man friend named Joseph Onosioyibo who used to come to the house to pick her and they would go away and later come back. I was always looking at them because I believed they were friends. Then on Tuesday, February 19, 2013, her lover, Joseph, came with a certain small car at about 4.00p.m., discussed briefly with my daughter and left. Later in the evening of that day, he came with his jeep and packed in front of my compound and sat on one of the chairs in the corridor, he greeted me and he told my daughter to get ready that they were going out.”
He continued: “At about 8.00p.m., my daughter finished preparing and they entered the jeep and left. He told me they were going and I bade them good night because that was how they used to go before. The second day, which was Wednesday, I did not see her; Thursday she was nowhere to be found. For about three days, I had not seen her so everyone became worried. So I went to look for the man, someone showed me his compound because I did not know where he lived even though he is from my community. I met him paying people who had supplied him rubber and I asked him ‘where is my daughter that you carried three days ago?’ He told me he dropped my daughter on one junction in the town. Then, I asked him why he had to drop my daughter at the dangerous junction in the night and why he didn’t bring her home where he took her from.”
“I told him to look for my daughter. Then I left him and went to report to the local vigilance group. The vigilance group members said they would investigate, that I should come back that evening. The next day, the vigilance group said the suspect was just arriving home so they could not interrogate him.”
“ I went to the home of one of the community leaders called Chief Omeruo. He, too, was alarmed. He asked me why I had to wait up to four days, that it was not a town man’s business but a police matter. He said I should report to the police immediately.”
When he went back to the vigilance group, they informed him that they had postponed the visit to the suspect’s house again. Edah said he went home and told his second daughter, Miss Ovoke Edah to go to the police station.
“Initially, we went to the Army post at Ughelli to report the matter but the Army personnel there told us it was a police matter not that of the Army,” he recalled.
Edah said: “She went to Isiokolo Police Station and reported to the police. Then my daughter, Ovoke, came back with two policemen. Then, surprisingly, the vigilance group came and were angry that my daughter brought the police that they were already handling the matter.”
The police later arrested the suspect but he was surprised that an affluent man came that same day to bail him.
Edah said the police asked them to give the bailed suspect sometime to find the missing girl.
The third day, they went back to the Divisional Police Officer (DPO) and the suspect, who allegedly claimed to know those whom the late girl was with that night, denied ever saying so and was supported by the DPO who said he never heard the suspect say such.
The family was furious at the way the police at Isiokolo was handling the matter, they told the DPO of their displeasure on the way the matter was being handled and the DPO directed them to the Police Area Command in Ughelli.The next day, Edah, accompanied by his family members, went to the Ughelli Police Station to report the matter, and the police took their statement again.
Back home in Okpara Inland, the community members were already losing their cool and were very bitter at the lackadaisical manner the matter was being handled, as security agents were not showing any genuine seriousness about locating the missing girl.
The next day, the community residents gathered and staged a protest, wondering why only persons from their community were always missing, that three other persons had been missing in the last four months and had not been seen. Their search was still on when Omotejohwo’s case increased the statistics.
The community women, youths and others protested to the vigilance group, wanting to know why people were missing everyday in the community and the group was doing nothing about it. That even with the fresh case of the missing Omotejohwo, the group kept postponing investigations and not making any effort to invite the suspect to hear what he had would say.
The protesters, The Guardian learnt, seized the vigilance group chairman in the community and interrogated him. But as the interrogation was going on, a combined team of soldiers and policemen stormed the community, shooting heavily, they were invited by other vigilance group members who feared their leader could be lynched.
The invading soldiers, police and vigilance group members wreaked havoc in the community. One person was killed on the spot and three others were injured. Several houses were ransacked and destroyed.
But that was not the end; the home of the Edah was equally visited with terror by the same soldiers, police and vigilance group.
Edah, who was yet to find his missing daughter, got another blow: his house was turned upside down by the invading force. His television set and other valuables were taken outside and destroyed. Edah said they all ran into the bush to save their lives.
He said a few days after the invasion, on March 3, 2013, the news of the discovery of her daughter’s mutilated corpse pervaded the village. They went to the lonely bush where her decomposing body laid to identify her, and behold, she was the one as the dress she wore the day she left was still on her. It was a terrible sight. She laid on her back with her leg and arm stretched out as if she was held to the ground by a number of persons while someone removed her organs as she struggled.
Meanwhile, the lawyer to the family, N. O. Ereh, has petitioned the Inspector General of Police requesting him to use his good office to do justice in the case by transferring the matter, formerly pending at the Nigeria Police, Ughelli Area Commander’s office, to the Delta State Police Command headquarters, Asaba, or from wherever it is currently pending in Delta State, to his office for timely and proper investigation and administration of justice.
The lawyer in the petition, described the matter as a “case of abduction, kidnapping, murder, and unlawful possession of human parts for juju rituals, committed against Miss Omotejohwo Edah by Mr. Joseph Onosioyibo and his gang of ritualists.”
Sadly, the suspect who took the girl out on the night she was murdered didn’t spend a night in a police cell. Despite the seriousness of the matter, he was bailed the same day he was arrested and allegedly walking a free man.
Post A Comment
No comments :