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JJYOU:
Big twist in missing girl’s tale
By TESSY IGOMU
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
Eberechukwu

The agony of not setting eyes on his daughter for the past two years gave him a permanent stoop and a distant look. As he stepped into the Daily Sun newsroom that fateful day clutching the picture of his missing 23-year-old daughter, it was obvious that his soul harboured much turmoil.

The sudden disappearance of Mr. Okonkwo’s daughter, Eberechukwu, on her way to work at Sunrise Bus-stop, along the Oshodi-Apapa Expressway, the family’s fruitless search, accusation and counter accusations were published in the Daily Sun of May 6, 2009.

As soon as the story hit the newsstands, it set off a chain reactions that led Daily Sun on the trail of suspected kidnappers in the oil rich city of Port-Harcourt, Rivers State.
On May 12, 2009, the phone rang in the wee hours of the morning and on the line was the Daily Sun Editor, Mr. Steve Nwosu. His tone was very purposeful.

“One Matilda has been calling from Port Harcourt in respect of a story that we did on one Eberechukwu that has been missing. The lady said Eberechukwu is with them and would like the father to come and get her released before she is transferred to prison.”

Calls were immediately made to Mr. Okonkwo to intimate him about the development. Though he had been briefed about the development on phone and given the caller’s number, the frail looking man was among the early callers at The Sun office in Lagos. Accompanied by an apparently worried man who turned out to be the elder brother of the missing lady, Pa Okonkwo’s anxiety was palpable as he fired questions at the reporter.

“You sey somebody call because of my daughter. She dey alive? Where she dey”, were questions that stumbled out of his mouth in smattering English.

After efforts were made to answer their questions, several calls were made to Matilda to authenticate her claims and also find out where Eberechukwu was being held in Port- Harcourt.
After days of interaction with Matilda on the phone, the reporter, alongside Okonkwo, headed to the Riverine area of Port Harcourt, the agreed meeting point with Matilda.

In Port-Harcourt, the reporter sought audience with the Police Public Relations Officer of the Rivers State Police Command, Mrs. Rita Inoma-Abbey to discuss the development. After a lengthy strategizing, a plan was hatched on how to get to the Riverine area to apprehend the caller in case she actually turned out to be fronting for suspected kidnappers.

The reporter was later instructed to call Matilda, pretending to be Mr. Okonkwo’s niece from Benin City, who had come with him to identify Eberechukwu and possibly negotiate for her release.
The following conversation ensued during the phone call, within which time the reporter had to practically speak like an illiterate. Matilda later changed the venue, asking the reporter and the old man to take a taxi to an address on Hospital Road.

With a change of venue, it was back to the drawing board. Daily Sun discovered that Hospital Road was just behind the Rivers State Police Command and leaving for the place immediately might arouse suspicion. It was then suggested that it was wise to bid for time while plain clothes policemen moved ahead to mount surveillance in the area.

Matilda called back several times to find out if Mr. Okonkwo was already on his way. During the calls, she sounded quite impatient. That further fired the suspicion that she could be involved with a kidnapping ring.

After waiting for about 10 minutes, the team was ready to meet Matilda. Just then, the PPRO, on a second thought, asked for the name of the missing lady and the actual circumstances surrounding her disappearance.

“She is actually in our custody,” she told the team. “We have one Eberechukwu that was brought to the station by the woman she was working for.”

Based on this revelation, the alert level was lowered and the idea to involve security operatives dropped. With the trail of suspected kidnappers dissolving into the air like mist in the face of sunshine, the reporter chartered a taxi with Mr. Okonkwo and they immediately headed for Hospital Road.

At the address, a fair complexioned lady immediately walked towards the reporter and introduced herself as Matilda. She then launched into a long narration of how she employed Eberechukwu who gave her name as Ngozi in 2008. She disclosed that she pitied her because she claimed to be an orphan. “I was surprised, however, when my attention was drawn to a publication in Daily Sun about Eberechukwu’s alleged involvement in theft.

Trying desperately to defend her action for handing over Eberechukwu to the police, she said: “I employed her as a sales girl when she told me she had lost her parents. When my friend told me about seeing one of my girls in a publication and it turned out to be Ngozi, I immediately called in the police. I did not want a situation whereby she would be traced to my shop and I would get arrested for what don’t know”.

Not withstanding being responsible for her arrest, Matilda confessed that Eberechukwu has been of good conduct and judiciously carried out her duties without prompting since she was employed.
“Though, she admitted stealing from her former employer, she has a long story to tell about the stolen money. But in all fairness, I must admit that she has never stolen any of my things. She has been very sincere in dealing with my customers”, she quipped.

Matilda offered the reporter and Mr. Okonkwo a ride to the Area Command Police Headquarters where Eberechukwu was being held. An attempt to ascertain if the lady in detention was actually Eberechukwu was abruptly turned down by the station officer, who demanded to see the Investigating Police Officer (IPO) in charge of the case. The train was thereafter referred to the Area Command to get clearance from any senior officer who might be aware of the case. At the Area Command, a senior police officer who pleaded anonymity offered to go to the station to make the identification process easy.
When Eberechukwu was brought out, she looked horrified with her dishevelled hair weaved into three lines. Silence pervaded the place as she was ushered to the counter by a policeman. Suddenly, a shriek escaped her mouth as she saw her father.

“Ah my daddy! I’m dead! Daddy please take me away from here”, escaped her mouth as she made to lunge at him from across the counter. It took two officers and a sharp rebuke to quieten her. For Mr. Okonkwo, it was obviously the most despairing moment of his life as he watched with disbelief his long lost daughter. An alarming sigh escaped from his mouth as he stared at her with bloodshot eyes.

When the reporter spoke with Eberechukwu, she went into vivid details of her encounter with fraudsters and how she eventually ended up in Port-Harcourt. Throughout the time she spoke with Daily Sun, she deliberately avoided her father’s sad look, while her scared eyes darted round the room.

According to her, when she set out for work that morning and met four men who introduced themselves as pastors, she never imagined that the encounter would eventually alter the cause of her life.
She recalled that the men who alighted from a private car called her name and introduced themselves as men of God.

“They told me everything about my family history and how we have been struggling to survive. They knew everything about me and said that I possessed mermaid spirit.”
The pastors, Eberechukwu noted, told her to bring money for the spirit to be exorcised or she would lose her life.

In her words: I was afraid and asked them what to do because I did not want to die. They said that they would have to travel to Jerusalem to buy the materials needed for my deliverance. They told me to bring my father’s money. But I told them that my father did not have money. They then said that since I work with Mr. Igbanugo, I should know where he keeps his money. They then instructed me to go to the office and bring money for them. I went to the office and brought the money I saw in a nylon bag to them. They took it and showed me a charm, warning me not to tell anybody what had happened. They promised to give me back the money.”

Contrary to the allegation by her former employer that she stole close to two million from the office, Eberechukwu claimed to have taken only N500, 000.

She recalled that the men, who later ordered her into a car, drove to a house in Oshodi area of Lagos where they kept her for some days. After that, they jumped on the road again.

“I did not know where I was because they blindfolded me. The only thing I remember was that they drove for a long time till we got to a place known as Isialla Ngwa in Imo State. One of the pastors warned me not to go home because policemen were looking for me. He told me the lord directed them to take me to the wilderness. They then gave me incense and coloured candles to burn in the room that they kept me.”

After some days, she said the same pastor told her to go to Port-Harcourt because he wanted to travel to Jerusalem to procure the items for her purported deliverance.

“I told them that I don’t know anybody in Port Harcourt but they told me that the spirit of the lord would direct me. They dropped me by the Presidential Road in Port Harcourt and told me to join some prostitutes by the road side. They drove off, giving me a new phone with a sim card. As I was walking on, crying on the road, I met a security man who took me to where he stays with his wife and three children. He also got me a job in a restaurant. It was while working there that I met aunty Chinasa who told me to come and live with her.

Asked how she has been surviving in an expensive city like Port Harcourt and why she said her parents were dead, she answered: “I worked in a restaurant before getting my present job. I lied that my parents were dead because that is the only way people can help me. I did not mean it.”

When confronted with the gravity of the offence hanging on her neck, the thoroughly-frightened Eberechukwu told Daily Sun that the pastors warned her against divulging any information about their business. “They said I would vomit blood and die immediately I tell anybody about it”, she quavered.
Her naivety came to the fore with her defensive outburst when told that she had been defrauded.
“They still call me and promised to bring back the money. They would bring the money. They still warned me not to return to Lagos.”

Policemen and other people listening to her encounter shook their heads, wondering whether Eberechukwu believed the ‘pastors’ who were obviously fraudsters.
“I know they would come. They have been calling me” she answered with a benign look.
Before the reporter left Port Harcourt for Lagos, plans were underway to release Eberechukwu to her father.    http://www.sunnewsonline.com/webpages/features/citysun/2009/may/27/citysun-27-05-2009-001.htm   is this real?