Murder So Brutal
BY FELIX ABUGU

For 20 years, she lived in America, 10 of them as a single who was abandoned with her three kids. Last month, she decided to visit home with her daughter and two sons, who were all coming to their fatherland for the first time in their lives. Barely 24 hours later, she was murdered in her father's house, in rather very troubling circumstances. Was it a case of premeditated murder or armed robbery?.
"
MY mom is dead. My hard working, loving and caring mother has died. I don't want this to be true but it is, She suffered a horrible death; she didn't deserve to die that way.
"My mom hadn't been back to her country in over 19 years. She was finally able to go, and took my brothers and I with her (it was our first time ever being here).

"Every day, she would talk about Nigeria; she would always tell us about Nigeria. She just wanted to visit her family that she hadn't seen in so long and show us her country. She bought so many gifts for her family and had been preparing for this trip for a while.  "We arrived at our family's home (our grand parents' home in Ihiala, Anambra State) at almost 12 midnight. On June 3, 2007, just the next day of our arrival, this terrible thing happened, "
Those were the anguished words of Benita Okanume whose mother Ifeoma Okanume, the only parent she knew most of her life, was brutally murdered, in very controversial circumstances, in her father's house, barely 24 hours after she returned from the United States. And to think that this young lady was visiting her country for the first time in all of her 18 years on earth!

Indeed, if Mrs. Virginia Ifeoma Okanume, nee Nwabuba, had had inkling of the terrible fate that awaited her at home, she certainly would not have elected to visit after a 20-year sojourn in the United States. But she was no clairvoyant, no Nostradamus and therefore, couldn't have seen tomorrow. How could she have known that her own father's house, the very house where she was born and brought up, would turn out to be her graveyard of sorts, where she would be tortured, shot and left to bleed to death, in rather very troubling circumstances? How could she have known that after working so hard as a single parent to make meaning out of her life and those of her children, she would return home to share the joy of success with her family only to be brutally murdered by men showing so much hate for her and disdain for life?

The story of Ifeoma Okanume's murder is a sad reminder that life is yet too deep for man to comprehend. Perhaps only she, out there in the spirit world, is now in a position to understand why she died the way she did. Or, for the time being, who her killers are.

In the mortal world, the living can only shed tears and ask the usual rhetorical question: God, but why? Or confront the authorities with a demand for justice for the survivor-relatives.
And, so in that spirit, Ifeoma's children, mother, brother Joe in Holland, sister Maureen, married to Philip Okroafor and living in Lagos with her family, and A-Zee Intel Network, a private investigating outfit and others are asking questions of the authorities: who killed our mother, daughter and sister? What is being done to apprehend the killers?

In affidavits deposed to at Maryland, County of Charles, United States of America by Benita and her brother Benjamin and sent as petitions to the Inspector General of Police, Mr. Mike Okiro, Ifeoma's children and their niece Maureen A-Zee Intel Network, a private security outfit based in Enugu, also in separate petitions to the IGP, described in moving details how the young mother of three was murdered in the afternoon of June 3, this year.

And they ask: will the IGP let the perpetrators of this heinous crime go free?
According to the petitions, about 2.30pm on the fateful June 3, Mrs. Okanume, who had the previous day endured a gruelling 10 hour journey from Lagos to her home town Ihiala, had taken her two sons, Benjamin, 17, and Bennett, 10, down from the second floor apartment in her father's house in Ihiala, Anambra State. They had gone to inspect her Toyota SUV, a gleaming white bird, which had just been delivered to the family compound that afternoon, clear two days after it was to have been delivered to her in Lagos to travel in back to the east, on her return from the United States where she lived and worked as a nurse.

After inspecting the car, which had been shipped from the US weeks earlier and was also supposed to have come with the number plates but was finally delivered without them, the woman and her children moved straight into her father's living room, which is downstairs, for what was described as 'a family meeting' summoned by the old man. She never went back upstairs on her own accord and never lived to tell any story.

Wrote Benjamin in a gory detail of how hoodlums snuffed the life out of his hard working mother: "After seeing the car, my mom, Bennett (the youngest of the three Okanume children) and I enter my grandfather' s house, I greet two other old people there, along with my grandfather. So, there are a total of six people. My mom takes a seat. I go sit next to Bennett and before I can even sit down, the first gunman runs into the house.

"The gunman is wearing a white T-shirt and asking 'where is the money?' Each of us in the room does not know what is going on. At first, I think it is a joke. My grandfather then gets up and starts to fight with the gunman. The gunman could have shot him anytime but does not. That is when I realise something fishy is going on. So, the gunman throws my grandfather to the floor. The gunman tells every one to get down on the floor. Then the gunman throws a bottle of water at my mom and says, 'where is the money?' At this time, I am really angry about how he is disrespecting my mom, so I stand up from the floor and ball (clench) my fist.

"They start to force my mom upstairs and the last words I ever hear my beloved mom say are 'take it easy.' At this time, more gunmen come in, all of them without masks. They see me standing and tell me to get down using words (having been born in America, he does not understand Igbo) I did not understand. Then one of them kicks me in the face. While they are forcing my mom upstairs at gunpoint, I hear about three or four gunshots.

"Then, they come back to only me in the room out of the other five people left now and ask me for my money. I tell them that I am only 17, I want to go to college; I want to live. So, I give him (one of them) my $5 and I think it is all over. After about five minutes, every one in the room gets up because we think the gunmen are gone. (But) they come running in there again and say, 'so you people think we are playing?' So, all of us get back on the ground.

"Then, the gunmen come only to Bennett and myself and ask for money again. One of the gunmen picks up a glass vase to hit me on the head. The only reason he does not hit me is because I am begging for my life. I remember saying, 'please I am only 17; please let us live, my brother is only 10.  "So, they leave again, Then after about one minute, a different group of gunmen come and start to reach in Bennett's pocket. I tell them, 'please he is only 10; he has no money. Please, just leave him alone.' Then the guy in black shirt asks me for money. I tell him I already gave my money to another guy. He then shoots me in my right leg. As blood is rushing out, he tells me to get the hell up and show him where the money is. At this point, all I am thinking of is why am I going to die this way?

"I look behind me as I am going upstairs and I see the man in the black shirt reloading his gun. When I reach upstairs, I am in shock. This house had about 15 to 20 people in it. When I come in, it is vacant. So, I go to the room my family is staying and I get the two bags I remember the money being in. I really thought I was a dead man because I look into the bags and there is no money. While about five of them look through the suitcases, the gunman in blue dress says 'oh, so you are risking your life over money, so you want to die over money?"

"I really do not know where the money is, so I just beg for my life and sit back against the wall. They tell me to get up and follow them. When we leave (come out of) the room, my grandmother has my mom's money in her hand and gives it to them. So, I run into my grandma's room where I see Maureen, her daughter and a little boy. I thought Maureen was playing dead but I later found out she was also shot in both legs. I try to hide under the bed but there is a little boy there.

"Now, I am thinking there is only one way for me to stay alive. I tell the boy to trust me; I tell him to lie on top of me, that they will not kill us. Just then, another gunman comes in, sees the boy and myself and just leaves. After about five minutes, I hear my grandma calling Maureen. I stand up and see something I will never forget for the rest of my life. Whoever did this should burn in hell: I see my one and only loving, caring, supportive mother, the best lady on this earth, in the doorway in a puddle of blood. I just start throwing things in the house because if I had known they only came to kill my mother, I would have at least tried to fight them while they forced her upstairs. I know I would be dead but at least I would be in heaven happy with my mom, "

Benita was still upstairs, preparing to join her mother and her brothers downstairs to inspect the newly delivered Toyota 4-runner when the commotion started. She was still in their room when the gunmen dragged her mother upstairs apparently on a vengeful mission to dispossess her of her money and then finish her off.

She gives a further chilling account of the brutal killing of her mother:
"Suddenly one of the gunmen came in from downstairs roughly holding my mother by the arm and a gun shoved into her back. Still in shock, I was so relieved that she was alive. After roughly shoving my mother, the man came up to me with the gun pointed to my face screaming "Where is the money?" I tried to calm him down and said ' we'll find you the money.' He kept shouting 'Where is the money?' I repeated that we'll find it for him. He hit me in the face, still shouting about the money. He grabbed me and asked if I knew where the money was and said 'show us there it is!' I could see that he and another gunman were getting ready to take me to another room and I said that I didn't know where the money was because I really didn't know. He pulled the necklace off my neck and proceeded with his gun towards my aunt, Maureen, her little girl, my grandma and my mom who were still searching frantically for the money. I told my mom to stand behind me, but of course with all this commotion she wasn't listening. I just wanted to protect my mom. I just didn't want anything to happen to her.

"The gunman then hit my grandmother with the gun and tried to hit me with the gun but I shielded myself. He then hit my mother across the head with the hilt of his gun and her head started bleeding. (Anytime I remember this vivid image I be come very sad and disturbed that my mother was injured so terribly this way and suffered a horrible death). He attempted to do it again and I threw my hands around her head. He then grabbed her, still shouting about the money and then shot my mom in the leg. I did know what to do or think; I just saw my poor mom call out to my grandmother before she collapsed backward by the door. Blood was pouring out from her leg and spreading into a big pool of dark blood as he eyes rolled up in her head. I started screaming 'someone, please call a doctor! Someone, please help my mom!' I felt so hopeless because this was another country and there isn't a 911 that I could call to save my mother. My grandmother and my aunt were screaming, my three-year-old cousin was crying. The gunmen had left the room to go search around the house. I could hear other people screaming, more gunmen shouting, and gunfire outside the room. All I could see was my mother lying in a pool of blood on the floor. The gunman forced his way back to the room, intentionally hitting the door on my mother's head. My poor mom lay there unconscious; the door couldn't be fully open because my mom's body was right next to it. Standing at the door, he pointed the gun to my mother's head and shouted 'where is the money?' Even though she was clearly dying and appeared unconscious, this cruel and wicked man still pointed the gun to my helpless mother's head. Even though she was lying in a huge pool of blood and her eyes were rolled up, this man still pointed the gun to her head ready to shoot her again.

"My aunt came running up to him with the money, he snatched it and hit her. Again, he pointed the gun to my mother's head, even though we had given him the money. Clearly this wasn't just about money; they wanted to kill my mother. My aunt's little girl was crying in the background, screaming and gunfire continued outside the room. The gunman left the room again. My aunt picked up her little girl and tried to find a place to hide, I was still staring at my mother's helpless and motionless body hoping that she was still alive and hoping that the gunman wouldn't try to shoot her again. My aunt pointed at a place for me to hide and I did myself behind a big trunk under the table and covered myself with clothes. I was praying for my mother's life.

I heard more gunfire outside the room, more shouting from the gunmen, and more screaming. Then there was a silence of gunfire. Suddenly, I heard my brother screaming 'no, mom, someone call a doctor, please don't die.' I was in shock and so scared for my mom, I kept praying. I didn't hear my brother's voice anymore or the gunmen but I could still hear yelling. One of the maids comes in and tells me that the gunmen are gone. We were both crying and she was saying that they shot my mom. She guided me downstairs to the outside.

"I saw a crowd of people and my aunt sprawled on the middle of the ground with blood soaking her clothes, her eyes were open but unconscious. By the time we reached the bottom of the stairs, some of the people had carried her into a car and headed off to the hospital. I didn't see my mother or brother anywhere; I knew that they must have been sent to the hospital like my aunt. I was crying and praying that my mom would live. My world was spinning and crashing down before my eyes."
Mrs. Okanume Dies

Having been so terribly battered, Ifeoma Okanume was dead even before she was brought to Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital, Ihiala, shot in the leg and three times in her private part. Her sister Maureen and son Benjamin were admitted for gunshot injuries. Maureen's left leg was later to be amputated from the thigh region.

Mrs. Okanume's journey to a brutal end
For 20 years, Virginia Ifeoma Okanume lived in the United States. After her married to Mr. Benedict Okanume of Ukpor, Nnewi South Local Council of Anamra State, they relocated to the United States. About ten years ag, their marriage collapsed. After the split with her husband, Ifeoma Okanume was left to cater for three young children all alone. She was left with no other choice than to work hard. In fact, she literally immersed herself in her work as qualified professional nurse and was doing really well in the United States. In the course of time, she was able to buy herself a mansion in a good area of Maryland in the United States, send her children to good schools and own a fleet of choice cars.

But, although she had always told her children, who were all born in the United States, about Nigeria, she hadn't been able to bring them home. Allegedly persuaded by one of her uncles, Mr. Emmanuel Nwabuba, an international businessman resident in Aba, Abia State, Ifeoma finally decided it was time to take her children to their fatherland.

As part of the preparations for her travel, the well-heeled lady arranged with Mr. Nwabuba to ship to Nigeria one of her Toyota 4-runner cars or what is commonly called Jeep in these shores. She meant to use the car during her stay in Nigeria and perhaps to leave it behind for her parents or relatives when returning to the States.

The arrangement was that the car would be shipped to Nigeria, licensed and kept in Lagos for her to use in travelling to the East as soon as she flew into the country.

Part of the reason for bringing the car to Nigeria was that she also needed a vehicle big enough to also take some of the things she was bringing home both to sell and as gifts to people at home.

But the first shocker was that when Ifeoma and her family arrived in Lagos on June 1, that is last month, there was no Jeep waiting for her. It was only her younger sister Maureen, who is married and lives in Lagos with her husband and children, that was waiting for her at the airport. Angry, Ifeoma reportedly put a call through to her uncle still in the United States to find out why the car was not waiting for her in Lagos. It was then that Mr. Nwabuba told the late Ifeoma that the car had been taken to Owerri and would be waiting for her at home by the time she got to Ihiala. Meanwhile, would Ifeoma mind using his Hummer Jeep to travel to the east with her children?

The late nurse reportedly rejected the offer and instead chartered a commercial mini-bus which took her, her children and Maureen to Ihiala on Saturday June 2, arriving at her home town about 11.30pm-12midnight.
Again, there was no trace of the said car. Mr. Nwabuba's wife Lear was said to have telephoned Chief Francis Nwabuba, alias Mogambo, Ifeoma and Maureen's father, earlier on that the car would be in Ihiala that Saturday. Again, it was never brought from Owerri to Ihiala that Saturday. It was not until about 2pm the following day, that Sunday June 3, that the car drove in.

But, surprisingly, it came without the registration plate numbers, which Mr. Emmanuel Nwabuba had told his cousin Ifeoma had been installed. According to the documents, the car had been registered on May 31.
Maureen's stated in her petition that the late Ifeoma had complained bitterly about the state of the car when it was brought-that it was very dirty, the windows wound down while there were foot marks all over the back seat seats. Those were things actually notice and pointed out by Ifeoma's son, a towering quarter-back in college football in the United States.

While Ifeoma and her two sons went into her father's apartment for the 'family meeting' which Chief Nwabuba had summoned, one of her step brothers named Nonso (after his wedding in the Catholic Church with his first wife, Ifeoma's mother Bessy in 1963, Francis Nwabuba was to marry additional five wives.) offered to wash the car. At Ifeoma's prompting, Maureen gave him the car keys.
Nonso was outside washing the car when the robbers came about 3pm, took the car keys from, robbed Ifeoma of her money, killed her and wounded her son and sister.

A case of Armed Robbery or premeditated murder?
The long-awaited Toyota Jeep was eventually delivered to Ifeoma by one Kennis alias Washer, said to be a long-standing associate of Emmanuel Nwabuba. On getting the news that the vehicle had arrived, Ifeoma's first son Benjamin hurriedly left the fortress of their apartment to inspect the Jeep to make sure that it was intact. The only thing abnormal was the discovery of many foot-marks on the floor of the backseat whose windows were kept down. Benjamin then asked Kennis why he carried strange persons in the vehicle the car and why the windows of the back seat area were kept down when the vehicle was fully air-conditioned? Kennis could not provide any answer but instead said he was in a hurry to go to Cotonou to clear a Hummer Jeep belonging to Emmanuel.

Curiously, this Hummer Jeep was supposed to have arrived in Nigeria in the same container that brought in the Toyota. At any rate, Ifeoma took delivery of the documents and keys of the Jeep and retreated back to the two-storey apartment, where her father had summoned them for 'a family meeting'.
But shortly after Kennis, who sources said spent less than 20 minutes after delivering the car, left, about 3pm, a band of armed robbers/assassins of about eight persons with a masked leader, made their way to Mogambo's place.

In her testimony to the police, which she later sent as a petition to the IG, Maureen alleged that when the robbers came, they collected the handsets of all present but that after the operation, the robbers gave Nonso's own back to him as they drove the Jeep out of the compound. The exchange of handset between the robbers and Nonso was witnessed by no other person than his father, who reportedly told a relative Rev. Father Denis Ononuju Obiaga that he told the police to arrest Nonso. He was however to apply for his son's bail two days later.

Chief Nwabuba is being accused by her daughter Maureen of deliberately throwing her and the rest of her mother's children off guard by inviting downstairs for 'a family meeting that was never meant to be. She said that because of her mother's 'precarious situation' in the family, they had long ago secured her apartment upstairs and that it would have been difficult for the thieves to gain entrance into the top-floor apartment if their father hadn't disorganised their security with that fatal invitation to 'a family meeting.'
In her affidavit, Benita alleges that shortly after her mother's killing, her uncle Emmanuel Nwabuba called her from the US asking for her mother's social security number and offering to pay the mortgage for their house so it could be put on the market for sale.

"This made me believe that he must have other important documents belonging to my mother that would enable him pay for the mortgage, seeing as he did not even ask for the mortgage company's name, her account number, or any other information concerning my mother except for her social security number," Benita charged.

After the robbery incident, Ifeoma almost dead, Maureen and Ifeoma's three
children, including Benjamin with a gunshot wound in the foot, were rushed to Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital Ihiala, where Ifeoma eventually died (her body is still in the hospital morgue). One of their uncles Rev. Father was taking care of the children at St. Joseph's ward in the hospital. But the next day, Sunday June 4, Maureen alleged, Mrs Lear Nwabuba, Emmanuel's wife came in from Aba with a message that Emmanuel who was still in the US, had instructed that Ifeoma's children be taken to Aba where an arrangement had been made for a medical doctor to take adequate care of them. Trusting her, Rev. Obiaga got the children discharged and handed them over to Mrs. Nwabuba, with strict instruction that the boy with bullet wounds be rushed to the hospital as soon as they got to Aba.

But Mrs. Nwabuba was said to have taken the children to her house where she kept the wounded Benjamin for two days unattended to by a doctor. The foot was reportedly drooping blood and water until one of Ifeoma's brothers' wives heard about it and went with a nurse to Nwabuba's house and dressed the wounds.

Botched attempt to hand Ifeoma's children over to their father.
Since his separation from his wife some 10 years ago, Benedict Okanume had apparently not seen his children. Their mother was said to have been completely responsible for their upkeep, education and all. About nine months ago, Okanume, according to Mauren's testimony, had threatened to deal decisively with his wife for 'taking too much." In fact, he was said to have threatened to kill her by shattering her private part, a threat which people knew about. Curiously, when the robbers came, they shot Ifeoma thrice in her private part, a development which investigators are at pains to conclude whether it is possibly the person who made the threat that carried it out or some other person who may have been privy to that threat.

In any case, according to Maureen's report, Mrs Lear Nwabuba had, probably at the behest of her husband, arranged for Benedict to come to their house in Aba to see his children. Benita recalls that on their way to Aba from Ihiala, Lear had tried to convince them that the problem between their mother and their father was actually caused by their mother, to which the children vehemently objected.

Shortly after their arrival in Aba and the children had settled down upstairs, Mrs. Nwabuba allegedly went and told them that their father wanted to see them, that he was waiting outside to be invited into the house. Their hearts still heavy-laden from the trauma of their mother's death and the injuries they sustained, the children were, to be sure, upset. But instinctively, Benita tiptoed downstairs to try to see where their father was standing outside waiting for permission to come into the house. But alas, Mr. Okanume was not outside but right there in the living room, ensconced in one of the chairs.

A frightened Benita was said to have screamed, run back upstairs to tell her brothers their father was in the house, whereupon they decided to lock themselves up in the room and would not open until, using a cell phone that one of them still managed to hide from the robbers, they called their uncle Rev. Father Obiaga who came and took them, on June 6, to the safety of the American Embassy in Abuja. Thereafter, the children were flown back to the US on June 8.

Of love and hate
Bessy Nwabuba, a strong Catholic and well-known leader of the Ihiala Catholic women, loved her children very much. After her husband broke his vow to love only her as the wife she wedded in the Catholic Church, she became an unflinching devotee of Mary and the Church. But with five additional women in the house, she was like the old dame that was no longer cherished. As often happens in a polygamous family, both she and her children became more or less objects of hate. As it became evident, Ifeoma, the family's Ada (first female child) in spite of her achievements as a nurse and caring single mother, was despised. Maureen alleges that when it became established that Ifeoma was visiting home, Nonso, her step-brother, had sarcastically told her mother that "Ifeoma is coming home for you people, not for us."

It is such obvious expression of hate that made Bessy and her children provide impregnable security in her apartment upstairs in the two storey building the Nwabubas live in Ihiala, an arrangement which Maureen accuses her father of breaching with evil intent.

In her testimony, Benita alleges that Emmanuel Nwabuba once video-taped her mother's house in the US and sent to her husband Benedict, in a probable attempt to provoke his envy and cause trouble for her mother.
In a telephone interview with The Guardian from the Orthopaedic hospital Enugu, where she is looking after the amputated Maureen, Bessy Nwabuba said since her daughter was amputated, her father Francis Mogambo Nwabuba has not been to see her. Neither has he been to see his daughter's corpse in the morgue at Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Ihiala, where it has been since her death on June 3.

She also alleged that after Ifeoma was robbed and killed, she wanted the 14 boxes of goods she brought home for sale moved out of the house to a safer place but that her husband refused. Two days later, the house was 'burgled' again and all 14 boxes 'stolen'.

It is this obvious hatred for their mother by members of her own family that is making the Ifeoma children insist that their mother must be brought back to the United States for burial and that their grandmother Bessy must come to live with them over there.

In an email to A-Zee Intel Network, the private security firm handling the investigation of their mother death in Nigeria, the children said: "We will never be able to live if our mom is not buried in the United States."
Chief Francis Nwabuba, his brother Emmanuel and Benedict, Ifeoma's husband won't respond to enquiries.

Every attempt to speak with the aforementioned over the allegations against them were unsuccessful. Armed with their telephones, the Guardian tried speaking with them on phone but none of them would pick their calls. Text messages were later sent, but even these were not responded to. At a point, a female voice answered Mogambo's phone but insisted he was ill and in Owerri for treatment. His wife Bessy said she was not aware her husband was sick.

The police angle
In its petition to the IGP, A-Zee Intel Network argued that the decision of the police to release some of those arrested in connection with the dastardly murder of the Ifeoma was wrong. The organisation said they ought not to have been released until investigation had been completed, since the case in question was a murder case. After the robbery and murder of Ifeoma, Mogambo, Emmanuel who returned to the country shortly after, Nonso and a few others were arrested.

But Deputy Commissioner of Police Anambra State Amusan Bello told The Guardian on phone that the suspects were released because there was no evidence linking them to the murder. "If we do not release them now, you people will be the first to shout that people are being unjustly detained for a crime they have not been proven to have committed," he chided. He however assured that investigation was going on and that the police would apprehend the criminals.

The Anambra Police insist that the armed robbers that caused the havoc came from Onitsha and that Emmanuel Nwabuba and others should not be held responsible for the imponderable killing.

But A-Zee Intel Network argued in the petition to the IGP that "no gang of assassins could have on the spur of the moment and operating from Onitsha, as the Anambra State Police Command claimed, within not more than 30 minutes from the time of the delivery of the jeep and the time the assassins assembled together at Onitsha, decided their target, assembled their arms and ammunition ( a small bag containing over 100 large-size live bullets was abandoned at the scene of of the murder), snatched a Mercedes V-boot for their operation and coverd a distance of over 30 minutes, all within the short moment between the delivery (of the Jeep) and the attack. Certainly, it took several days of planning before the actual date of murder."

"Who, therefore, told the so-called Onitsha robbers that Ifeoma would be coming home laden with dollars and that her Jeep would be delivered to her at a time at Ihiala and not in Lagos?" A-Zee further queried.

Curiously, the police were said to have released the suspects on bail to Mr Ken Emekayi, a former commissioner in the Mbadinuju Government in Anambra State, who was until recently himself under investigation for the murder of Barnabas Igwe, the late Onitsha NBA chairman and his wife who was pregnant at the time in 2002. Amusan, however, said there was nothing wrong with the procedure, reminding that it is the constitutional right of anybody to stand as surety for a suspect for purposes of bail, provided such a person can guarantee the availability of such a suspect whenever he or she is needed for trial or further investigation.

However, as at press time, there were indications that the matter had been referred to DIG Zone 9 Umuahia from Force Headquarters, Abuja for further investigation and that some real progress may have been made.
That, certainly, is good news for the three young Okanume children who are crying for justice over the dastardly murder of their beautiful and successful mother.


What do you all think about this story.Am really short of words.I never knew people could still be this heartless.May the

soul of Mrs Ifeoma Nwabuba rest in perfect peace. Amen.

I am short of words too. People are so heartless.

All i can say is that justice belongs to God, we humans can only try our best but the overall Judge is up there waiting to judge each and everyone of us accordingly to our deeds.

Just take heart and i pray that God almighty help you and heal your pains.

May the Soul of your Beloved mother rest in perfect Peace. Amen.

Thats one of the saddest stories ever


People can be so cruel, may her truly gentle soul rest in peace.

I pray God be with her children and trustworthy family members that she left behind . . these are cases where you wonder why God let the wicked go scot-free, but in due time I know my God will render justice . . vengeance is mine says the Lord!!


May her family take heart, i wish them God's love, protection, kindness, prosperity, wisdom, and all the good things of life . . her first daughter is my sister's name-sake, Benita!!

@mcube

I dont think the tragedy happened to the poster, she's just a messenger

Crime section please. Source?

hmmmmm


im actually lost for words-such an odd world.

and i sincerely hope dat this is not a sp. . . .

I am very sad to hear this.I actualy went to school with ifeoma,lived with her at st imelda's hostel,ihiala run by late mother eucharia and got on with her mother as i i went to her restaurant during my secondary school days at abbot girl's secondary school,ihiala in the late 70's ifeoma was junior to me but we got on so well. Her father used to be the famous mogambo who owned mogambo hotel at the bottom of the girl's secondary school, I will always the light skinned pretty ifeoma.
I have cried so much having read this information online.ifeoma was a very quiet girl who smiled always and always helped her mother so much.i really liked her.And to know she was killed this way is sad and unbearable.i feel for her children so much.it is sad,and i do hope God gives gives them the strength to carry on.may her sould rest in peace.what a beautiful and wasted life.

This is what marriage can get someone into.Is it worth marrying some animal out there just for the sake of being married.:if only people can forsee the animal element in some ibo men, poor soul.

May God have mercy

from what i understand of the account of what happened,i think they should look inwards into their family because it looks and smells like an inside job.
perhaps a disgruntled or jelouse family memeber who arranged a set up,they were given information about the money and the woman may her soul rest in peace resisted givint it to them,one thing i always tell people in a situation of this nature is never to try and fight robbers and never to resist especially if they know the specifics of what they r there for,

similar thing happened in my house in naij several years ago,armed robbers came to our house and wanted the usual,while my dad n everybody were trying to see how to save themselves,one of our drivers tried to attack them and he was shot point blank, the poor man died at the eko hospital just less than 10 mins drive from my house.
may their souls rest in peace,and its a lesson for all of us never to resist these people because they have nothing to lose,they are desperate hence very dangerous

I am dissapointed in the way and manner our people back home could be this wicked, the victim is a half sister of one my neighbour here in France, when she told me wht happend i was weak and didn't feel like going back home to visit Naija, she didn't explain in details the way it is here, because she was too much in pains, how wicked the world could be , I was planing my VISIT nAIJA WITH KIDS AND HUBBY that same period and hopeing to stay in the family home just like the late Ifeoma did. When her half sister told me the tragidy, I had to change my mind and decided to loged in an hotel instead of the family house stuff. (As it is said certain things teachers sense.) Although loging in an hotel is not still very secured as far as nigeria is concerned but the advantage is that u give an other to the receptionist not to allow anyone to know ur room number or even allow anyone to visit u witout ur authourity. A woman who has surfered so much to manage herself and her children alone, see how they killed her, these armed rubbers thinks money is picked on the floor of europe or american , my prayer is that they will never have rest of mind until they come to confess who had hired them for this deadful wicked act. May God continue to preotect her children, and may her gentle soul rest in peace AMEN. and to her children, You guys should not go back to that home where ur lovely mum is killed.

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since i read this story i am not myself i can sleep i can eat i feel very sad  i was planning to go to Nigeria after 8 year of not seeing my family
i think i got to forget about it and sent them more pix of me , may the soul of lfeoma rest in peace and may GOD be with the children.

since i read this story i am not myself i can sleep i can eat i feel very sad  i was planning to go to Nigeria after 8 year of not seeing my family
i think i got to forget about it and sent them more pix of me ,

benincitys Yes it's quite a sad story, but can u stay away from family all  ur life? the only thing u need do is pray to the one who controls the heart of every man, (God) If u have ENOUGH money lodge in a good secured hotel  and try to help yourself also by not exposing the name of ur hotel to all that u think are friends and family, because u never know who is who, give instructions to hotel receptionist on whom to allow in. In my case i do reject some visitors i ve doubt on because i went with my kids. That family things uuuh!!! i no buy am oooooo, and each time u are visiting anyone don't inform him or her, always go by surprise and just be careful, no say i no tell u oooo. good luck in ur decision.

benincity, it is really scary. looks like an insider thing. our people can be mean. now am scared of niaja
may she rest in peace and may God protect the children she left behind. i hope the kids are back to the state and never to look back again or go back there.

plappville and omoge @ thanks

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my God,is it that sm pple are so heartless

they had the money already,why on earth did they kill her

their souls will not rest,the pple dat killed that woman will not live to see another day

Post amended!

may her soul rest in peace.

Always disguise when u go to nigeria,keep a low profile.

i really dunno what to say

Polygamy should be discouraged. I hope Naija men who believe in it, after reading this, would repent.

May her soul rest in peace

so sad

This is really heart wrenching. Yet we are quick to accuse those overseas of abandoning their hometowns. Why murder such a hardworking woman, and in presence of her children?

The world is cruel because the devil is here,n apart from using his demonds directly he uses human agent
so whenever u see an extreme wicked manifestatin from a fellow human,u can only defeat such if u use prayers by
inviting JESUS cause He drove down the devil and can handle him anytime

I Dont really know what to say,RIP Mrs Okanume.

Even some people living in Lagos dont ever go to the village and stay in family house. And people dont even go with cars and flashy stuff. Its better to stay in Lagos. And whoever is important come see you in secure location. i.e only your mum. Wetin concern agbero with overload. You should have only important people around you. All the step brother uncle and blah blah is bs. And I dont do family business. Asking some family to help you with your car import etc is bring trouble. They might decide not to deliver the car and there is nothing you can do about it

Sometimes your friends are better than family. For me I would rather stay with friends I trust than go to a family house. At-least a friend that we are both on the same level in wealth and exposure

It's obvious the man who delivered the vehicle with many footsteps on the back seat arranged with the criminals to carry out the dastardly act,

But some human beings can be heartless.