Ritualists kill another UNIBEN student in Anambra hotel

Miss Chinenye Promise Nwoye, a 200-level female student of the University of Benin, has been murdered by suspected ritualists popularly known as ‘Yahoo Boys’ at a hotel in Abagana, Njikoka local government area of Anambra state.

Orient Weekend gathered that the victim, who hails from Iruokpala village, Abba in Njikoka local government area of the state was lured to the hotel and allegedly paid N5,000 for the room where her killers committed the act on Thursday, August 27, 2020.

This paper gathered that one of the suspected killers of the Religious Education undergraduate has been apprehended and detained at the state police headquarters, Awka, while the corpse has been deposited at a morgue in Nimo.

According to the deceased’s mother, the 19-year-old, who was forced to return home due to the coronavirus pandemic, was undergoing a computer training course at Orie-Abagana, when she met her killers. Mrs Nwoye recalled her last phone call conversation with her daughter that fateful Thursday when she failed to return from the programme.

“I called her on the phone, it was ringing, but not picking. I called repeatedly until she picked, with a tone as if she was speaking under someone’s command and in pains. She told me to bring her ATM code number to her at Akuu Hotel as if she was kidnapped and immediately the phone was forcefully cut off.

“I repeated the call continuously and she later picked and repeated that I should bring her ATM code to her at Akuu Hotel, Abagana, and as she was talking, the phone was forcefully cut off again and that was when I sensed danger.

“Immediately, I called one of my brothers-in-Christ to come to my house, and as soon as he came, we left, asked of the location of the hotel and immediately rushed thereafter my daughter’s call.

“As we got there, some boys were there. I don’t know who is who, but I noticed two boys stayed separately; we rushed to the reception, met the receptionist, told her who I am, my daughter’s name, that I want to see my daughter.

“The receptionist shouted, ‘Is it this woman, I know this woman, her type will not come here’, that is when I suspected that the hoteliers’ hands are in my daughter’s misfortune. The receptionist told one of the two boys to give her the key to room 57, that he is the one that is in that room, he refused.

“So, the receptionist brought out their spare keys, went up and started opening all the locked rooms and immediately she opened the room 57, she shouted, ‘these people have killed somebody here ooo! Everybody in that hotel started running, including the two boys. I don’t know who is after who; so, on hearing of the voice and shout of the receptionist upstairs, my brother-in-Christ rushed upstairs and saw my daughter stone dead, and he shouted to the receptionist “so you people are doing things like this here?

“One of the two boys was caught as they were running to escape, and on a tip-off, the police came, forcing me to enter their vehicle. I refused and told them that my husband must be here to see our daughter before taking her away. They forced me, telling me that they are going upstairs to bring down the corpse.

“The brother-in-Christ, who went upstairs told me that he observed that she was stripped, they tore her cloth, used it to tie her two legs, tied her hands at the back and face downwards, inside the toilet, gagged her mouth with clothes, which indicated that she was strangled because, there was no drop of blood anywhere around there, and no part of her body  was missing

“Maybe, they wanted to use her for rituals, but the way we rushed as soon as my discussion with my daughter was cut off, made them not to finish what they wanted to do with the corpse,” she added.

Speaking, father to the girl, Mr Chukwunonso Nwoye, demanded justice and pleaded to Governor Willie Obiano to demolish the hotel and ensure that the killers are paid in their own coin.

“I want the hotel to be demolished by Governor Willie Obiano, and killers of my daughter killed also if I will live long,” he pleaded. 

He said that the arrested killer confessed and pleaded to the police to be allowed to fish out the remaining accomplice, as he did not commit it alone, and that the woman, who brought the N5000 for the hotel room was part of the murder.

The hotel manager, Philip Mata, had denied the claim that the facility was a nest for ritualists, and had witnessed a series of ritual killings. “This is my fourth year as a manager in the hotel. No such thing has happened here except this murder,” he claimed.