ONE week after Edwin Nnadiogo, a 48-year old tenant
of No.19B Ntueke Street, Awada layout, Obosi in Idemili North Local
government Area of Anambra state, near Onitsha killed his four
children, sister in-law and himself, his fellow tenants were yet to
recover from the rude shock, fear and psychological trauma which
gripped them as a result of the incident..
A visit to the compound last Wednesday showed that the entire
house was almost deserted by the tenants, including the one sharing
the same flat with him. Some of the tenants abandoned the compound
for fear of the unknown, while others sneak in at intervals and
hurry out.
The action of the tenants, according to their chairman, Chief
Osualor Ibeabuchi J, was not only based on the frequent visits of
policemen and other security agencies to the compound, or because
of the abnormal nature of the act, but also because the odour of
the congealed blood of the slain children was still oozing out from
the 4th floor where Nnadiogo lived and killed his children and
himself.
Speaking inside the compound, Ibeabuchi J noted that almost all
the children residing inside the compound are now suffering from
one type of sickness or the other following the terrible sight of
corpses of the slain children who were playing with them when
Nnadiogo, their father, returned home and they all shouted Daddy,
Daddy, welcome in jubilation and followed him upstairs.
Ibeabuchi J said that as chairman of the yard, he did not know
much about the late Nnadiogo who hailed from Isu Njaba in Njaba
Local Government Area of Imo state because during his life time, he
refused to attend meetings of the tenants because he saw himself as
the landlord, since he was a direct younger brother to the
landlord.
He recalled that Nnadiogo’s wife, a nurse by profession and
proprietor of a chemist shop near the compound whom he simply
identified as Mama Mmesoma, had packed into the building early last
year without the husband, while the husband joined her in the
apartment between November and December, last year. Giving a
graphic account of how the tenants knew about the killings,
Ibeabuchi J recalled that it was very difficult for himself
residing on the ground floor of the building to have known what was
happening at the 4th floor because even the tenant who was sharing
the floor with Nnadiogo was not in the house on the fateful
day.
He said the tenant who shared the floor with Nnadiogo is from
Enugu state and he had a ghastly motor accident about seven months
ago which shattered one of his legs and landed him at University of
Nigeria Teaching Hospital, UNTH, Enugu and was just discharged from
the hospital recently.
He said he was taking his bath between 6.35 and 7.35 p.m. on the
fateful Saturday when he heard the shouting from the 3rd floor of
the building and when he rushed out to find out who was shouting
and why, he saw a teenage girl who had visited the slain sister
in-law to Nnadiogo at the window.He said the teenage girl jumped
from the window of the 4th floor where the incident took place and
landed at the 3rd floor when she saw Nnadiogo butchering his
children with knife and warned her to steer clear..
He said luckily enough, the tenant living at the 3rd floor
returned from maternity where he had gone to see his wife who was
delivered of a baby and he opened the door before they reached the
teenage girl shouting and asked her what it was all about and then
she disclosed that something terrible had just happened at the 4th
floor.
He said as they all went upstairs to the 4th floor and knocked,
there was no response as the door was locked from inside but they
perceived an ugly incidence because the teenage girl informed them
that she saw Nnadiogo using knife on his children before she
escaped through the window from the 4th floor and jumped into the
3rd floor and discovered that she could not climb down from there
because the doors were under lock and key since the tenant of the
3rd floor was not in and then she started shouting: “help me,
someone help me”.
According to him, “I was taking my bath that evening and when I
started hearing the shouting, I quickly abandoned my bath half way,
tied my wrapper around my waist and rushed out with the foam of
soap all over my body. I joined the tenant on the 3rd floor who
just returned from the maternity and when he opened his door, the
teenage girl narrated her horrendous story to us and we quickly
rushed to the police..
“After the police at Awada police station took our statements,
they followed us back home and forced the 4th floor open and
behold, I saw Nnadiogo’s last born lying dead on the floor and
knife wounds all over his body and I was so terrified that I
refused to follow the policemen into the bedroom where they found
the four others also lying dead, with Nnadiogo himself unconscious,
but he died on the way to the hospital and all of them were
deposited at Bex Memorial Hospital Mortuary, Awada.”.
He disclosed that while their lifeless bodies were being
evacuated from the flat, Nnadiogo’s elder and younger brothers, who
are all brothers to the landlord of the house, picked up his
international passport and saw a hand written note folded inside it
and when he was reading the note, one of the policemen snatched it
from him and read it to the hearing of everybody.
He stated that he heard the policeman reading the content of the
note written by Nnadiogo himself before the killings as follows: “I
and my children will go back to the creator of the world, while my
wife will go back to her parents and remarry someone who she feels
is better than me”.
He quoted Nnadiogo’s wife as telling the police that her late
husband was frequently using abusive words on her, adding that he
had been going to rehabilitation and psychiatric homes to control
his mental disorderliness and that her parents came to Awada on
Sunday, a day after the incident and took her to Isu Njaba.
“The teenage girl told all of us that she had come to pay a
visit to her friend, the slain sister in-law, but came face to face
with the horrendous development. Also, a house help to Nnadiogo,
whom he sent out to buy a sachet of cold water for him, returned
with the water and found everybody dead,”.he said.
He said both the landlord of the house, who is eldest brother to
the deceased and the caretaker of the house who is the elder
brother to the deceased, came into the police station, made
statements and left.
He said it was the shout of the teenage girl that saved the
whole tenants from walking into trouble because if she had not
visited and saw part of the killing, the tenants would not have
known what happened until their bodies would have started
decomposing and it would have sent all the tenants into perpetual
trouble.
The state Police Public Relations Officer, PPRO, Mrs. Nkiru
Nwode, ASP, told newsmen on phone that the police are still waiting
for the report of the autopsy.
ONE week after Edwin Nnadiogo, a 48-year old tenant
of No.19B Ntueke Street, Awada layout, Obosi in Idemili North Local
government Area of Anambra state, near Onitsha killed his four
children, sister in-law and himself, his fellow tenants were yet to
recover from the rude shock, fear and psychological trauma which
gripped them as a result of the incident..
A visit to the compound last Wednesday showed that the entire
house was almost deserted by the tenants, including the one sharing
the same flat with him. Some of the tenants abandoned the compound
for fear of the unknown, while others sneak in at intervals and
hurry out.
The action of the tenants, according to their chairman, Chief
Osualor Ibeabuchi J, was not only based on the frequent visits of
policemen and other security agencies to the compound, or because
of the abnormal nature of the act, but also because the odour of
the congealed blood of the slain children was still oozing out from
the 4th floor where Nnadiogo lived and killed his children and
himself.
Speaking inside the compound, Ibeabuchi J noted that almost all
the children residing inside the compound are now suffering from
one type of sickness or the other following the terrible sight of
corpses of the slain children who were playing with them when
Nnadiogo, their father, returned home and they all shouted Daddy,
Daddy, welcome in jubilation and followed him upstairs.
Ibeabuchi J said that as chairman of the yard, he did not know
much about the late Nnadiogo who hailed from Isu Njaba in Njaba
Local Government Area of Imo state because during his life time, he
refused to attend meetings of the tenants because he saw himself as
the landlord, since he was a direct younger brother to the
landlord.
He recalled that Nnadiogo’s wife, a nurse by profession and
proprietor of a chemist shop near the compound whom he simply
identified as Mama Mmesoma, had packed into the building early last
year without the husband, while the husband joined her in the
apartment between November and December, last year. Giving a
graphic account of how the tenants knew about the killings,
Ibeabuchi J recalled that it was very difficult for himself
residing on the ground floor of the building to have known what was
happening at the 4th floor because even the tenant who was sharing
the floor with Nnadiogo was not in the house on the fateful
day.
He said the tenant who shared the floor with Nnadiogo is from
Enugu state and he had a ghastly motor accident about seven months
ago which shattered one of his legs and landed him at University of
Nigeria Teaching Hospital, UNTH, Enugu and was just discharged from
the hospital recently.
He said he was taking his bath between 6.35 and 7.35 p.m. on the
fateful Saturday when he heard the shouting from the 3rd floor of
the building and when he rushed out to find out who was shouting
and why, he saw a teenage girl who had visited the slain sister
in-law to Nnadiogo at the window.He said the teenage girl jumped
from the window of the 4th floor where the incident took place and
landed at the 3rd floor when she saw Nnadiogo butchering his
children with knife and warned her to steer clear..
He said luckily enough, the tenant living at the 3rd floor
returned from maternity where he had gone to see his wife who was
delivered of a baby and he opened the door before they reached the
teenage girl shouting and asked her what it was all about and then
she disclosed that something terrible had just happened at the 4th
floor.
He said as they all went upstairs to the 4th floor and knocked,
there was no response as the door was locked from inside but they
perceived an ugly incidence because the teenage girl informed them
that she saw Nnadiogo using knife on his children before she
escaped through the window from the 4th floor and jumped into the
3rd floor and discovered that she could not climb down from there
because the doors were under lock and key since the tenant of the
3rd floor was not in and then she started shouting: “help me,
someone help me”.
According to him, “I was taking my bath that evening and when I
started hearing the shouting, I quickly abandoned my bath half way,
tied my wrapper around my waist and rushed out with the foam of
soap all over my body. I joined the tenant on the 3rd floor who
just returned from the maternity and when he opened his door, the
teenage girl narrated her horrendous story to us and we quickly
rushed to the police..
“After the police at Awada police station took our statements,
they followed us back home and forced the 4th floor open and
behold, I saw Nnadiogo’s last born lying dead on the floor and
knife wounds all over his body and I was so terrified that I
refused to follow the policemen into the bedroom where they found
the four others also lying dead, with Nnadiogo himself unconscious,
but he died on the way to the hospital and all of them were
deposited at Bex Memorial Hospital Mortuary, Awada.”.
He disclosed that while their lifeless bodies were being
evacuated from the flat, Nnadiogo’s elder and younger brothers, who
are all brothers to the landlord of the house, picked up his
international passport and saw a hand written note folded inside it
and when he was reading the note, one of the policemen snatched it
from him and read it to the hearing of everybody.
He stated that he heard the policeman reading the content of the
note written by Nnadiogo himself before the killings as follows: “I
and my children will go back to the creator of the world, while my
wife will go back to her parents and remarry someone who she feels
is better than me”.
He quoted Nnadiogo’s wife as telling the police that her late
husband was frequently using abusive words on her, adding that he
had been going to rehabilitation and psychiatric homes to control
his mental disorderliness and that her parents came to Awada on
Sunday, a day after the incident and took her to Isu Njaba.
“The teenage girl told all of us that she had come to pay a
visit to her friend, the slain sister in-law, but came face to face
with the horrendous development. Also, a house help to Nnadiogo,
whom he sent out to buy a sachet of cold water for him, returned
with the water and found everybody dead,”.he said.
He said both the landlord of the house, who is eldest brother to
the deceased and the caretaker of the house who is the elder
brother to the deceased, came into the police station, made
statements and left.
He said it was the shout of the teenage girl that saved the
whole tenants from walking into trouble because if she had not
visited and saw part of the killing, the tenants would not have
known what happened until their bodies would have started
decomposing and it would have sent all the tenants into perpetual
trouble.
The state Police Public Relations Officer, PPRO, Mrs. Nkiru
Nwode, ASP, told newsmen on phone that the police are still waiting
for the report of the autopsy.