On a visit to Okwuchi in her friend’s home, where she has been taking refuge, the 38-year-old gold medalist sobbed uncontrollably as she narrated her ordeal. According to her, the ugly incident occurred around 2.50 am on April 28, 2015 at their residence in the Afara area of Umuahia, the Abia State capital.
The Abia State-born weightlifter and an employee of the State Sports Council recalled she got married to her husband, a native of Amoji autonomous community in Isiala Ngwa North council of the state, on December 13, 2008. She lamented that the marriage had yet to be blessed with any child when the gunmen struck.
They had gone to bed, according to her, when suddenly she noticed a flash of torchlight on her face and alerted the husband of the presence of a strange person in their apartment. “I was sleeping on the bed with my husband when I saw a flash on my face and I woke him from sleep. Immediately he got up, he held the curtain to our bedroom and shouted, ‘Who is that?’
“Then what followed was a gunshot. But the way he behaved after he was shot showed me that somehow he knew the person because he rushed and grabbed the gunman and they started dragging the gun. As they dragged the gun, our ceiling and the wall were riddled with bullets but as blood kept flowing uncontrollably from his body, he slumped and the killer ran out. My husband was tying wrapper and blood filled our room.”
The physically-challenged Okwuchi said the attacker(s) might have gained entry into their apartment through the back door as the noise from their generator prevented them from hearing the attackers’ attempts to force the door open.
The widow said they had packed their items waiting to vacate the apartment that same day following a quit notice by the landlord.
On whether she was suspecting a robbery attack, she said, “I don’t think they were robbers because they did not remove a pin from our house, but quickly ran away immediately my husband collapsed. I believe they were sent. And we were trying to pack out that day. We had packed everything ready to pack into a new apartment where we have rented around Golden Guinea area.
“I am trying to rent out the new apartment now to recover the money we spent and use it for other things including the payment for autopsy. They just ‘peppered’ me by killing my husband who has been everything for me.” Asked if the husband had any quarrel with anybody, Nwokennaya said no, but added, “Our landlord said we should pack out, and the other people are my husband’s kinsmen who were dragging land with him.”
She pointed out that the land dispute between them and the husband’s late uncle’s wife was to be charged to court that morning. The bereaved said her husband had been invited by the Police at the Zone 9 Headquarters over the matter which would be taken to court that morning.
Nwokennaya expressed worry that since the ugly incident, not much progress had been made towards apprehending the perpetrators. She appealed to government and police for quick intervention to unmask those behind the act.
She said, “The taxi he (late husband) was using was given to me by Abia State Government during empowerment programme of Governor Theodore Orji. I am government ‘pikin’. I have won three gold medals for the state in weightlifting at the National Sports Festival in Bauchi, Ogun, and Kaduna states. I want the Police Commissioner to please facilitate the investigations to make sure my husband’s killers don’t go unpunished,” Nwokennaya stated amidst tears.
When contacted, the Police Public Relations Officer, Mr. Ezekiel Onyeke, confirmed the incident and assured that the police were on the trail of the perpetrators. “We thought that this type of killing should be a thing of the past by now because the society should be mature. But we are not letting it lie low,” the state police spokesman added.
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Crime