The murder in Enugu of a senior nurse, Mrs Maria Amadi, one of the three high-profile killings in the state in two months, is a hard nut the police are trying to crack. CHRIS OJI reports
The Enugu State police command is battling to unravel the perpetrators of one of the three high profile murders in the state in the last two months: that of Mrs Maria Amadi, head of nursing at Neuropsychiatric Hospital Enugu.
N5m reward has been promised by Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi for anybody who can give information on the killers of the nurse.
A lawyer to Mr. Afam Ndu, one of the suspects being detained over the murder of Mrs. Amadi, JMCC Ogbuka, has come with fresh issues as the security operatives continue in their push to track down those behind the killing.
Mrs. Amadi, from Igbo-Etiti Local Government Area of the state, was murdered in front of her house at Trans-Ekulu Area of the state at the close of work.
Ndu, also a senior staff at the same hospital, was remanded alongside two other officials of the hospital over the murder.
There were reports that before the deceased died she mentioned the suspects, including four others at large, as being the masterminds of the shooting incident.
All the suspects work in the same hospital with the deceased, Amadi. While the deceased was the head of nursing services, Mr. Ndu is the Vice principal, school of Psychiatric and Mental Health Nursing of the Hospital. The principal of the school, Mrs. Buzo-Ruth Maduka is also being held.
However, speaking to journalists after he filed a bail application before an Enugu High Court for the release of Mr. Ndu, Ogbuka said it was against all provisions of the law for someone to be clamped into detention over mere suspicion.
He added that a look into the police case filed with which the suspect was charged to court showed that the deceased gave no such evidence as was earlier reported, noting that it was actually the husband to the deceased that reeled out the names based on existing work-related issues between his late wife and the other parties.
He said, “Based on this empty suspicion and unsubstantiated speculation, the applicant, who voluntarily came to seek for the bail of the Principal of the School was equally arrested and detained in police custody as a suspect in the case along with Mrs. Buzo-Ruth Maduka, who he came to bail and one Mrs. Stella Achalla, another staff of the hospital who served as the secretary to the former medical director of the hospital and presently posted as the secretary of the deceased before her death.”
He added that the husband to “the deceased gave the names of 7 persons to the police, whom he in concert with the DPO of the Trans Ekulu Police Station Enugu suspect to be behind the attack on the deceased to wit: the former managing director of the hospital, Dr. Jojo Onwukwe, the PA to the former MD, Dr. Andrew Oronyigwe, the secretary to the former MD, Mrs. Stella Achalla, a member of the board of the hospital, Mrs. Kudirat Sanni, another PA to the former MD of the hospital, Mr. Paul Ugwu, the principal of the school of Psychiatric and Mental Health Nursing of the Hospital, Mrs. Buzo Maduka and Mr. Ndu, the applicant, who is the vice principal.”
Ogbuka, however, averred that his client nor Mrs. Buzo-Ruth Maduka, whom he came to the Trans-Ekulu Police Division to bail nor any other member of staff of the hospital was seen nor reported to have shot the gun that killed the deceased in front of her house.
On the claims that the deceased made confessional statements, Ogbuka said, “there is no fact, evidence, or statement whatsoever from any eye witness of the incident of the shooting of the deceased in the police case file.”
He added that one Mr. John Ali, a neighbour to the deceased, who took her to the hospital, and medical staff that attended to her at the Enugu State University Teaching Hospital, Parklane, clearly stated that the deceased had no contact with the police as earlier claimed.
Ogbuka quoted Ali as saying that as soon as he got to the police station, “the DPO hurriedly asked him to proceed with the deceased to any nearby hospital for an immediate medical attention, which he did.”
He noted further that “the deceased did not have any contact with the police at the Trans-Ekulu Police Division Enugu nor at the Parklane Hospital, Enugu.”
Declaring that the arrest and incarceration of the suspect was only hinged on some misunderstandings in their workplace, he said “the suspicion against the applicant in this case is only actuated by sheer emotional feelings and anchored upon a rock of existing malice and mischief that is devoid of any fact to substantiate it.”
And the association of graduate nurses in the hospital rose to the defence of their detained colleagues.
In a lengthy statement made available to Southeast Report, they absolved their detained colleagues of complicity in the murder.
“Contrary to the rumour making the rounds that some suspected and remanded employees of Federal Neuropsychiatric Hospital Enugu (FNHE) had a hand in the murder of Nurse Maria Amadi (PhD), emerging information reveals that the abominable act might have been committed by armed robbers.
The information was availed by Evangelist Tochukwu Obiora (alias Iko Nso), who disclosed he is the Assistant State Commander of Enugu State Neighborhood Watch, to the University Graduates of Nursing Science Association (UGONSA), the professional association of nurses with a minimum qualification of first degree in nursing. UGONSA has been urging those with useful information regarding the gruesome murder of the late nurse to come forth with such for the interest of justice to the late nurse and the entire nursing community. The Enugu State Secretary of the Association (UGONSA), Nurse Nwodoh Chijioke Oliver in the company of the National Secretary, Nurse Nshi Goodluck Ikechukwu, had visited Evangelist Tochukwu Obiora on Thursday, May 2, 2019 and on Monday, May 6, 2019, at Ugboye in Abakpa-Nike Enugu, where they got the useful information concerning where the focus of security agencies should be at to possibly unravel the truth about Nurse Amadi’s gruesome murder.
Evangelist Tochukwu Obiora, as a top-notch leader of Enugu State Neighborhood Watch, does not only cover the Trans-Ekulu axis where Nurse Maria Amadi was murdered, he is also the Chief Security Officer (CSO) of Ugboye and Ugbowa neighbourhood Watch in Abakpa-Nike, Enugu and has been a frontline neighbourhood security officer of Enugu State for the past 21 years.
Evangelist Obiora opined that the story about the involvement of some employees of the Federal
Neuropsychiatric Hospital Enugu (FNHE) in the murder of Nurse Amadi (for which some of them are presently incarcerated in Enugu prison) looks like a fabrication made by some workers to get at their fellow workers who they have had one case or the other with (one of which is still pending in a law court) following the protracted crisis that has been rocking the hospital.
According to him, the intelligence he had so far gathered is strongly narrowing his suspicion to a gang of armed robbers that have been terrorizing Trans-Ekulu recentlye as those behind the unfortunate criminal mischief that befell Nurse Amadi.
“Before her incidence, I submitted intelligence report to the police that the area has been marked for indiscriminate attacks by a certain gang over an issue they had with the Trans-Ekulu police and for which they had vowed to make Trans-Ekulu boil” (i.e., “casting the area” – a term used by criminal gangs to portray spoiling show for people, police, in this case). “I made the intelligence report to the police to help forestall impending criminal activities in the area but the effort they have so far made seems not enough to nip such in the bud” said Evangelist Obiora (Iko Nso).
Continuing, Evangelist Obiora said, “Since the atrocious murder of the woman by this suspected gang of armed robbers, the same group had continued to terrorize Trans-Ekulu/Abakpa axis and had carried out several armed robbery attacks and equally murdered other people in the same area the woman was murdered. Since March till date, Trans-Ekulu/Abakpa axis of Enugu East LGA where this gang operates in has not had peace”.
“When some members of the gang were apprehended, instead of uncovering their involvement in the murder of the nurse, for which I had tipped them off, the Police later released them without establishing their link to it, reason for which I am yet to understand”.
“My submission remains that the murder has nothing to do with the workers of the FNHE, who were arrested and detained on the allegation that the murdered woman reported before her demise that, they were the ones that sent assassins to kill her. This case does not look like that of assassins at all.
“Common security sense tells me that assassins would not shoot on the leg, the tummy or the shoulder, as was reported in this case, but would aim for the head or chest and would have ensured that the woman was confirmed dead before zooming off especially giving the consideration that they operated freely unchallenged by any security operative while their atrocious act lasted. If not, why have they not arrested even one of the alleged ‘assassins’ till now”?
“I know the right people to suspect as the murderers; they are a gang of robbers and cultists. I am very ready to testify anywhere I am called to come and testify. I have the intelligence that the robbers/killers took off from Ugbowa in Abakpa-Nike and what looks like an affirmation to my submission is that one of them had regretted their action in an open place” – Evangelist Obiora added.
Evangelist Obiora further questioned the veracity of the rumour that Late Nurse Maria Amadi
mentioned the name of some persons as suspects in her case, after she was shot, either in the police station or in the hospital (to any doctor or nurse that was involved in her treatment) or to the person that brought her to the hospital, as mounting evidence does not lay credence to such.
This query was in line with the independent findings of members of UGONSA, Enugu State Chapter, in an investigation led by Nurse Andalyn Iheagu and Nurse (Barr.) Onuh Beatrice Akudo who had visited the doctors and nurses that participated in her treatment, the police station where she was taken to, and the person that took her to both the police station and the hospital following the gun shot and all confirmed the she never mentioned any person’s name.
Evangelist Obiora challenged those propagating the rumor that the deceased mentioned some people’s name in a statement she made to the police and to the doctors and nurses that attended to her in ESUTH Teaching Hospital, Parklane, to name the officers or the doctors or nurses to whom such statement was made to.
“To use the unfortunate incident of the gruesome murder of Nurse Maria Amadi (one of the finest professional Nigerian nurses) by some workers in the Federal Neuropsychiatric Hospital Enugu as an avenue to nail other workers they had issues with was preposterous especially as the whims of being on the deceased’s side should be altruistic inclination to unraveling the real truth and culprits behind her gruesome murder rather than playing primordial politics of attrition” – Evangelist Obiora submitted.
Speaking to a group of journalist on Monday, May 6, 2019, at Enugu, after the mind blowing revelation made by Evangelist Obiora, Nurse Nwodoh Chijioke Oliver (the Enugu State Secretary of UGONSA) and Nurse Nshi Goodluck Ikechukwu (the National Secretary of UGONSA) strongly condemned the killing of Nurse Maria Amadi and averred that such a dastardly and barbaric act has left the heart of the nursing community shattered.
According to them, what UGONSA, as an association demands, is a real justice anchored on verifiable truth and not a hearsay or token justice rooted on sentiments and vendetta.
“We in the nursing community are critically hit by the unfortunate incident because the deceased is a nurse and two out of the three persons that are currently incarcerated in Enugu Prison are nurses. The persons that are currently in detention were arrested on the premise that the late Nurse Amadi made a statement in which she mentioned their names as her killers but investigations have revealed that she never mentioned any person’s name”.
“Our hearts bleed the more because we are like a father whose daughter was murdered and when he cried out that the murderers should be hunted and brought to book, his remaining daughter and son were, instead, accused of being the killers of their sister over unverifiable stories and thus got arrested and incarcerated”.
“Since it has been verily established that late Nurse Maria Amadi never mentioned the names of anybody as her killers or as people that sent assassins to kill her, we demand that the people that are currently in detention over the allegation that she mentioned their names be forthwith released while investigation should be extended to unravel the rightful culprits.”
