Bauchi: Husband of murdered nursing mother narrates ordeal, says wife killed out of envy

From Ahmed Kaigama, Bauchi

The husband of nursing mother, Mrs. LoriciaOnunkwo, who was killed by gun men in Bauchi Monday night, said she might have been killed out of envy.

The widower Mr. Onunkwo stated while speaking with journalist yesterday , 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.

“Though I am not suspecting anybody, but I know that what happened was out of envy; because she was progressing and her business was booming. It might even be because they saw how we were living in peace. In such a thing, somebody can like to put problem in one’s family,” Onunkwo said.

He added that it might not really be the money with his wife as of neither the time she was slain nor the car that the killer needed, declaring that, “what they need is the life of the woman.”

According to him, if it was not the life of his wife the killers wanted to take, they would not have killed the woman, who was nursing a two-month-old baby.

Narrating what happened, Onunkwo, who said he had been in Bauchi since 1984 and got married to the deceased in 1993 in the town, explained that he was worshipping at Our Lady of Loretto Catholic Parish at FadamaMada, when his son came at about past 7pm on the day, crying profusely and asked him to come out and see.

He added that when he came out of the church, he saw his wife in her car with gun wound, bleeding and still breathing, saying that he took the car keys and drove to the TafawaBalewa Housing Estate police station to report the incident, from where a policeman escorted him and some of his neighbour to the AbubakarTafawaBalewa University Reaching 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.”

The deceased second son,MacochukwuOnunkwo, 16and a student of Immaculate Conception Secondary School, Bauchi, “I went to open the gate for her when he saw two gun men 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 recognize one of them,” the 16-year-old said.