Mr. Christian Onuoha, the Director of Administration representing the Ministry of Petroleum Resources on the Board of Abia State Oil Producing Areas Development Commission (ASOPADEC), is now helping the Police to unravel the cause of the death of his 11-year-old househelp, Anurika Ngwakwe, who died in mysterious circumstances.
Following Onuoha’s arrest penultimate Thursday and allegations that he may have raped the deceased to death, Abia State government has directed that he be removed from the Board of ASOPADEC with immediate effect pending the determination of his case.
The alleged rape incident is believed to have taken place Wednesday last week and the wife of the suspect is alleged to have prevailed on the late girl not to go to school that fateful day.
News Express gathered that Anurika was allegedly found unconscious in Onuoha’s car at his World Bank Housing Estate residence in Umuahia, before she was rushed to the hospital where she died.
Father of the victim, Mr. Chinenye Ngwakwe, 49, a security man with the Abia state Ministry of Finance, narrated the circumstances which led to her daughter coming to live with the Onuohas since January this year.
According to him, the wife of the accused, Precious, also a member of staff of the Ministry of Finance, had contacted and mounted pressure on him to find a housemaid for her family.
Ngwakwe said he decided to accede to her request and took Onuoha to his village, Owoahiafo in Obingwa Local Government Area of the state on January 2, 2015, to search for a househelp. Onuoha also hails from the same local government area.
Their first port of call was Ngwakwe’s house where he had to demonstrate his hospitality by entertaining the couple before taking them to meet with the parents of the housemaid he had intended to recommend to them.
His plans were, however, altered when his daughter, late Anurika came out from her room and greeted his guests who instantly developed interest in her.
His words: “They said they liked her and would prefer to take her. When my wife and I asked Anurika whether she would like to follow them, she said yes. They also promised to train her and we handed her over to them.”
On the death of his daughter, Ngwakwe said he was contacted on the phone on the fateful day by the wife of the suspect who invited him over to their house with a ring of urgency in her voice.
“Immediately I got to their house, I was told that my daughter had been rushed to a hospital. When I got to the hospital, I saw my daughter on oxygen mask lying naked on the bed and bleeding from the mouth and her private part.`
“When I asked them what happened to her, I was told that she locked up herself in the man’s car and was found bleeding with bruises in parts of her body. While I was there, the man told me that he was going back to his house and I said I would stay with her because she was my daughter.
“The man bought dry gin and gave me to drink, but I rejected the drink and threw it inside the hospital’s dustbin. He left us and went back to his house.
“Later in the night, the oxygen was removed but blood kept coming out from her private part with whitish substance.
“A nurse, who also observed it, shouted, ‘What did they do to this girl?’ At that point, the doctor called Onuoha on the phone and asked him to explain what happened to my daughter.”
Ngwakwe explained that when finally the accused showed up the following day, the doctor asked him to take the girl to the Federal Medical Centre, Umuahia, saying he could no longer handle the case.
Doctors at FMC insisted on having the medical report of the doctor that attended to her at the first hospital. According to Ngwakwe, before the doctor’s report was brought, the authorities of the FMC invited the police, who arrested the suspect. And his daughter passed on.
Crying for justice, Ngwakwe appealed to the government to prevail on the accused to “explain what happened to my daughter” as he added that the suspect’s wife had allegedly boasted at the hospital that they would deploy their financial muscle to “settle the matter.”
The Police Public Relations Officer, Mr. Geoffrey Ogbonna, said the suspect was still being detained, adding that investigations into the matter had commenced.
“It is not clear whether rape or ritual killing was the cause of the victim’s death, but when an autopsy is conducted, the result will guide the police in their investigations,” Ogbonna said, pointing out that since the victim’s body was discovered in another person’s car, the car owner would also be arrested.
Alarmed by the development, Governor Theodore Orji has ordered the immediate removal of the suspect from ASOPADEC board.
Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Dr. Anthony Agbazuere, who announced this at a press briefing yesterday, said the measure was taken “given the nature of his alleged crime.”
“Given the heinous nature of the crime which is rape of a minor and murder, Mr. Onuoha has also been placed on interdiction pending the determination of his case by the police and the court,” Agbazuere said.
According to the Commissioner, the state Civil Service Commission has also been directed to take necessary action as the case moves on
Agbuzuere explained that Section 358 of the Criminal Code of the Federal Republic of Nigeria was explicit on the issue of rape, adding that the punishment for rape is life imprisonment but since the victim was dead, “the issue of murder comes in and the penalty for such offence is death by hanging.” (Source: News Express).