How UNIBEN Student Was Killed In Anambra Hotel

The tragic tale of the sudden death of a female undergraduate of the University of Benin in one AKU hotel Abagana Njikoka local government area of Anambra state is still shrouded in confusion and consternation.

While some reports alleged that the deceased UNIBEN student was kidnapped by unknown gunmen and brought to the hotel where she was murdered in cold blood by her captors; the hotel itself claimed that it was not an accomplice to the unfortunate incident even though the tragedy occurred in one of the rooms in the hotel.

Counsel to the hotel management, Barr. Francis Effiong, said it was absolutely wrong for any report on the incident to incriminate and criminalize the hotel because the ugly episode took place within the hotel premises.

Effiong who spoke with reporters in an interview 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, 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.

“The police are on top of the situation now and we don’t want to say much so that we will not jeopardize the investigation that is ongoing. They came in as customers and not as kidnappers. The hotel took their information at the point of checking in. It was not the issue of kidnapping or whatsoever.

“The police even collected the records of customers that lodged, the rooms they checked in. The police also collected duplicate copies of receipts of customers to aid them in their investigations. So it is a complete falsehood to say there was no record of customers that come into the hotel. The list is there and the police collected it from the hotel.

“The hotel is not an accomplice to the crime. They are running their own business. It is not their responsibility to start asking where they are coming from and where they live. They came like any other guest in the hotel. The police have apprehended one of the boys but the other one is on-the-run. The hotel people raised alarm and one of them was caught. So the police are investigating the matter.”

Report making the rounds however has it that “Days after a University of Benin (Uniben) undergraduate, Miss Chinenye Promise Nwoye, from Iruokpala, Ire Village in Abba, Njikoka Local Government of Anambra State, was reportedly strangled to death inside room 57, Akuu hotel in Abagana, Njikoka Local Government Area, investigations revealed that usual commercial activities are still ongoing at the facility, with customers lodging at the hotel without proper identification for security purposes.

“It was gathered that before being lured to the hotel on the 27th day of August, 2020, Miss Nwoye, who is on scholarship at Uniben, had opted for computer lessons at a neighboring town, following the COVID-19 lockdown for which students have not returned to school.

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“Mother of the deceased, Mrs Chinyere Nwoye, and a member of her family fellowship, Brother Jude Okoye, who narrated how they rushed to Akuu hotel shortly after the deceased informed them via phone calls that she was in danger and needed her ATM pin number to free herself from “kidnappers”, accused the hotel management of complicity in Miss Nwoye’s painful death through their actions and inactions.

“They explained that following the arrival of Police officers from Abagana Divisional Police Station, the corpse was taken and deposited at Bekee Mortuary Nimo, Njikoka Local Government Area.

“Two suspects, including a staff of the hotel who were reportedly arrested by the Police over the incident, were said to have been released, fueling suspicion that influential people are trying to sweep the matter under the carpet, and subsequent appeal for the intervention of government and human rights groups.”

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Meanwhile, the Police Public Relations Officer of the Anambra state command of the Nigeria Police, SP Haruna Mohammed, told our correspondent that although one of the suspects was in the custody of the police, the matter was still under investigation.

Mohammed said that it was the outcome of the ongoing investigation that would unravel the circumstances surrounding her unfortunate death.