Suspected ritualists have allegedly strangled to death an undergraduate of the University of Benin (UNIBEN), Miss Chinenye Promise Nwoye in hotel room at Abagana, Njikoka Local Government Area of Anambra State
The victim hails from Iruokpala, Ire Village in Abba, Njikoka Local Government Area of Anambra, was believed to be a victim of fraudsters or kidnappers who lured her into the hotel for ritual purposes on August 27.
Nwoye, who was on scholarship at UNIBEN, kept busy during the COVID-19 break by registering for computer lessons in a neighbouring town. On the day she was killed, she was allegedly lured to the hotel by her killers, Anambra media reported.
While there, she made a phone call to her family members to inform them that she was in danger and needed her ATM pin number to free herself from “kidnappers.”
Her mother, Mrs Chinyere Nwoye and a member of her family fellowship, Brother Jude Okoye, narrated how they rushed to the hotel shortly after the deceased called them but it was too late.
The bereaved mother said: “I had immediately dressed up and left for the said hotel with a family fellowship member. On arrival, we met some boys outside the hotel. When I asked the receptionist about my daughter’s whereabouts, they started checking for the booked rooms.
I overheard her telling one boy to give her the keys to room 57 and 58 and on refusal, the attendant sought for a spare key with which she opened the room before screaming out loud to everyone’s hearing: ‘These people have killed somebody.’
“I ran upstairs and was shocked to see my daughter naked, lying face down with her hands and legs tied with her own clothes. From the clothes and the sandals, I knew it was my daughter.
When the fellowship member with me started raising alarm, they now called the police from Abagana Police Divison. They came and took the body away.”
She said the policemen took the body to Bekee Hospital Mortuary, Nimo in Njikoka Local Government Area.
Nwoye and Okoye accused the hotel management of complicity in Chinenye Nwoye’s painful death through their actions. They called on government and human rights groups to help them get justice.
She said: “I did not waste any time in getting there. So, there was no reason to kill my daughter. That hotel is a ritual place, and all of them know what happened to my daughter. It was even surprising that none of our kinsmen wanted to hear anything from me even when I went to tell them my story.
That is why I am calling on the government and human rights group to look into this matter and bring the killers of my daughter to book. This is a promising young girl that her life has just been terminated.”
Two suspects, including a worker of the hotel, who were reportedly arrested by the police over the killing, were said to have been released, fueling suspicion of an intense pressure to sweep the matter under the carpet.
Further checks reportedly showed that there was no documentation done at the hotel when guests check in and security measures were not in place. Commercial activities are still ongoing at the hotel, with customers lodging without documentation.
Death Of Uniben Student Chinenye Nwoye: Lawyer Exonerates Hotel From Complicity
Counsel to the hotel management, Barrister Francis Effiong, said it was absolutely wrong for any report on the incident to incriminate and criminalise the hotel because the ugly episode took place within the hotel premises
Effiong who spoke via a telephone on the incident, said the hotel should be exonerated from the matter because it was only doing business and not aware of the motives of the two boys who came to lodge in the hotel with the young lady.
Effiong said, “The situation is that two boys came to the hotel to lodge and invited a lady over. They paid the necessary lodging fee and brought in their guest.
So unknown to the hotel what their intention was, thereafter as the routine of the hotel is, when they went outside, the hotel attendant took the spare key to clean the room, opened the door and saw the young lady dead. So that is the story”