SALIU GBADAMOSI writes on the brutal killing of a nursing mother in Bauchi by gunmen who also went away with her money, which she had collected to invest on her poultry feeds business.
THOUGH they were blessed with three children, Mr Leonard Onunkwo and his wife, Lorencia, waited for 12 years before they had another baby, Moses, two months ago. Definitely, they were happy and were seriously planning for the thanksgiving and the dedication of the baby, which they had even fixed for Sunday, November 9, 2014 at Our Lady of Loretto Catholic Parish, Fadama Mada, Bauchi, where the family worshiped. They had gone further to book for the venue for the merriment after the church programme and had even been inviting people to be their guests on the occasion.
But all that had stopped as some agents of death snuffed life out of Lorencia right in front of her house at Fadama Mada area of Bauchi metropolis, last Monday, October 13, 2014. Despite the fact that she obliged her attackers with the money they demanded for, handing over her handbag, which contained an undisclosed sum of money and her phone, they still went ahead to shoot her at a close range before they left the scene.
The deceased, Mrs Lorencia Onunkwo, who was said to be in her late 30s, Sunday Tribune gathered, was accosted by two young men at about 7:15pm as she arrived in her house after closing for the day from her poultry feeds shop located around Gamawa Close, Fadama Mada area.
Until her death, she was said to be doing well in her business, which was really booming. It was gathered that she had tooted her car horn for her children to come and open the gate of the house for her when she was accosted by the young men, who after collecting her handbag, which she freely gave them without even arguing with them, shot her twice from a close range inside her Opel car, with the registration number BAU 268 AA.
Sources at her shop informed Sunday Tribune that the deceased got a huge sum of money for supply of poultry feeds, saying it could be this money that her killers got wind of, prompting them to follow her to house in order to collect the money from her.
She said the nursing mother, who fortunately did not have the two-month-old Moses when she was attacked, was later taken in her car to the Trauma Centre of the Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University Teaching Hospital (ATBUTH) in Bauchi, which housed the emergency unit of the hospital, where she was confirmed dead by doctors.
The woman disclosed that the couple were good people, adding that the deceased was a fine person and fun to be with. Though she said some people in their area at Fadama Mada had experienced armed robbery attack in the past, she was quick to say that no one had been killed before by robbers. She expressed shock that some hoodlums could come to the neighbourhood, robbed an innocent woman and killed her.
When Sunday Tribune visited the scene of the incident, the house was locked as the deceased’s husband, Leonard, and the children had relocated to the resident of a prominent Igbo leader in Bauchi at Government Reserve Area (GRA). The man and the boy, who was an eyewitness of the murder, were away to the Tafawa Balewa Housing Estate police station when this reporter visited the house.
However, a woman leader, who spoke with Sunday Tribune under a condition of anonymity, described the deceased, who was from Ideato South Local Government Area of Imo State, as a lovely, peace-loving and friendly woman.
According to the woman, who claimed to be the deceased and her husband’s godmother, “I have never heard of a woman being killed like this. Lorencia loved everybody, always cracking jokes, always happy. If you are upset and you meet her, you would become happy instantly because she would make sure that she makes you happy in her own way. I don’t know why anyone would kill such person. Lorencia never told us that she had problem with anyone. It is simply painful and a mystery.”
She said it was only last Sunday that the deceased called her on the phone to inform that they had booked Chaba Hotel on Maiduguri bye pass for the event, adding that, “We fixed the second Sunday of November for the dedication at Our Lady of Loretto Catholic Parish at Fadama Mada and she was excited about it.
“She talked about it all the time as we almost concluded arrangements for the dedication of her baby.
“Only last Sunday, she called me to inform me that she had booked for the reception at Chaba Hotel and we made arrangements for cooking only to hear that she was killed. It is very sad,” she added.
When Sunday Tribune visited the Onunkwos at GRA, Bauchi, on Wednesday, the husband of the deceased was met in the midst of his people who came to mourn the death of his wife. After some appeals by his people, he eventually agreed to talk on the murder of his wife, declaring that though he did not suspect anyone for her death, he felt his wife might have been killed out of envy.
The widower stated that his wife might have been killed by some people who were not happy that she was making progress in her poultry feeds business, noting that the world was so corrupt nowadays that anything could happen.
Narrating what happened, Onunkwo, who said he had been living in Bauchi since 1984, explained that after he closed from his shop where he was selling building materials at Ran road in the metropolis, he asked one of his children with him to go home, while he headed for Our Lady of Loretto Catholic Parish at Fadama Mada to worship.
He added that at about past 7pm on the day, his son came to the church crying profusely and asked him to come out and see, saying that, “In the state of confusion, because he did not tell me what happened but was crying, I left my shoes in the church. But later went back to put on my shoes before coming outside the church premises where my wife’s car was parked. She was inside her car with gun wounds in her chest, bleeding profusely and was still breathing.”
He said that the car was driven to the church by one of their neighbours, saying that he took the car key and drove to the Tafawa Balewa Housing Estate police station to report the incident from where a policeman escorted him and some of his neighbour to the Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University Teaching Hospital (ATBUTH).
According to him, it was at the teaching hospital that the deceased was confirmed dead, declaring that in spite of the incident, though very saddening, he was grateful to God because “the Bible says in every situation we must be grateful to God.”
Asked how he would cope without his wife whom he married in 1993, Leonard declared that it was sure that life would never be the same without his wife, who he described as loving, caring, hardworking and a good woman. He added that his people would take care of the two-month-old baby she was nursing before her untimely death.
In his own account of the incident, the second son of the decease, Macochukwu Onunkwo, a student of Immaculate Conception Secondary School, Bauchi, who witnessed the attack on her mother, stated that his mother returned home at 7:15pm, adding that he went to open the gate for her when he saw two gun men.
“I saw two armed men coming with guns. They faced me and wanted to shoot me with the guns, so I ran inside. It was after I ran into the house that they shot my mother. The gunmen were unmasked and I can recognise one of them,” the 16-year-old said.
He noted that the attackers were speaking in English, asking his mother “where is the money?”, adding that the deceased did not argue with them and that it was after they collected her handbag that they shot her.
He said though he waited a while after hearing the gun shots and his mother’s scream before he could come out of the house, he still saw the gunmen walking away but could not say how they eventually disappear from the scene.
“I was afraid that they might shoot me too, so I was inside for sometime before coming out of our house. I still saw the guys walking away when I came out with other people but I did not know how they eventually left the area. They did not come with any vehicle or motorbike.”
Asked if he had seen any of the young men at his mother’s shop that before, Macochukwu stated that he did not know if they were his mother’s customers but was sure they might have shot her because she knew them.
Meanwhile, the Catholic Bishop of Bauchi Diocese, Bishop John Malachi Goton, has advised the bereaved husband to forgive the killers and called on the police not to leave any stone unturned in fishing out the killers.
The bishop, who stated this while paying a condolence visit to the bereaved husband and his children, including the two-month-old baby boy, Moses, left behind by the deceased, at GRA, Bauchi, on last Thursday, stated that it was God who commanded people to forgive others in most difficult situations, saying, however, that this might seem pretty difficult.
While condemning the dastardly act, Bishop Goton, who was in company with the Father Andrew Batari, the parish priest of Our Lady of Loreto Catholic Church Fadama Mada, lamented that the deceased was the second victim from the diocese to be brutally killed within one year in the state, saying that he did not see any reason why anyone should kill a fellow human being.
The murder of Mrs Onunkwo has thrown the Igbo community in Bauchi into mourning. A chieftain of the community, who did not want his name in print, decried the deceased’s death, declaring that her brutal murder had thrown not only her family but also the Igbo community into great mourning.
He said that, “Her death brings to four the number of Igbos killed in Bauchi. Her own is particularly sad and painful because she was not only a woman but also a nursing mother who left behind a two-month-old baby. We implore the police to do everything possible to bring the killers to book,” he said.
When contacted, the Police Public Relations Officer, Bauchi State police command, DSP Haruna Mohammed, said he heard about the incident but had little details and promised to give more details about the killing as soon as he had full details.
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