Crime

How widow recovered bodies of her 3 children in septic tank

IGP Adamu & Mrs Aro

What did my children do that they had to kill them? What crime did my beautiful angels commit? These and many questions ran uncontrollably from the sobing Chinedum Aro, a widow whom the lifeless body of her three children were discovered in a septic tank.

The missing of the three children, Chidozie (9), Chinedum (6) and Chidinma (3) on Sunday, February 28, 2021 whom were recovered in her water tank remains a Mistry.

Residents of the area, Berger in Suleja, Suleja Local Government Area, Niger State have been thrown into fear and bewilderment on the mysterious death of the three children of the widow that lost her husband just last year.

The many unanswered questions for residents of the 10 flats building where they reside include:

what could have prompted anyone to kill the innocent children and why none of the neighbours in the compound heard or saw nothing while the evil act was being perpetrated.

Mrs Aro had gone to the market, that was a day before the lifeless body of the children were discovered. she sells drinks in retail and wholesale, regularly leaving her children at home even before the death of her husband last year.

One instruction she drops with them which they had sticked to was never to open the door to their house to anybody which the neighbours attested to also.

When she came back that Saturday night as the dead children were discovered on Sunday 28th February, 2021, she searched for the three kids who were her source of joy and hope, they were no where to be found.

The shock and confusion Aro was thrown into on that Saturday, February 27 when she returned from the market only to find the house empty without her children could be more than imagined.

Relaying this gory incident, she said: “They were washing clothes at the time I was going to the market. Each time I leave them at home, I instruct them not to open the door for anybody and they always obeyed.

“My door is always locked and they were not the kind of children you would see playing outside; they were always inside the house.

“The only time you would see them outside was when they were going to school or church, and once they returned, they would enter the house and lock the door.

“The day the incident occurred, I instructed them as usual that if anyone should come and tried to force the door open, they should shout and the neighbours will come out, then I left.

“When I returned from the market in the evening, the door was closed but not locked. I knocked but no one answered.

“When I entered the house, all the curtains were down, and I wondered what kind of sleep they might have been sleeping. I searched the whole house but I did not see them.

“I asked the security man about them and he said he did not see them come outside. I had to call my neighbours to tell them what happened and we started searching everywhere but we did not see the children.”

Retiring for the day worried, Aro woke up the next morning with a shout from the security man who had gone to her tank to fetch water but found blood coming out from the tap instead of water.

Alarmed, they checked inside the tank and saw the bodies of the three children with knife cuts around their necks. The tank had to be cut to bring out the bodies of the children.

“When my house help wanted to fetch water on Sunday, he saw blood coming out of the water tank, and when we checked inside, I saw my three children all dead,” she said amid sobs.

The corpses were taken to the Umaru Musa Yaradua Memorial Hospital, Sabon Wuse where they were certified dead and kept at the hospital’s mortuary.

The shock of the death of her children caused the grieving widow to collapse and has since been admitted into the hospital where she is currently receiving treatment.

Nurses in the hospital said she was being kept there for fear of what she could to herself if she was left alone in the house. They feared that she might commit suicide or slip into depression.

A family friend and Chairman of the Ukede United Front, Abuja, the township meeting of Aro in the Federal Capital Territory, Barrister Ifesi Nwodo, said the death of the children remained a mystery.

He said it was strange that no one in the neighbourhood heard or saw anything with the magnitude of the crime.

He said: “I have never seen or heard anything like this in my life. But it happened, and it was to one of the people I know. It is very unfortunate.

“We want people to come to our and help us in fishing out the perpetrator. We want everyone who saw or heard something that day to come out and tell us.”

According to a correspondent of The Nation that visited the compound of 10 flats of three-bedrooms, none of the neighbours met was ready to say anything about the crime. They all directed the reporter to the police, saying the police were the ones handling the case and they had answered all the questions thrown at them.

Some neighbours inquired from about the children said they (children) were rarely seen outside as they were always indoors after school hours or on weekends.

One of them said the children would never open the door for any reason.

“No matter how hard you knocked, the children would tell you that their mother was not at home hence they could not open the door. So we were surprised when we heard what happened,” a neighbor said, pleading anonymity.

The Public Relations Officer of the Niger State Police Command, Wasiu Abiodun, a Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP), who confirmed the incident, said the case had been transferred to the state CID, adding that it was being investigated.

He said that some people had already been arrested in respect of the crime but they were yet to disclose who the suspects were or where they came from.

Abiodun also said the hospital was working alongside the police to unearth the real cause of the death, saying that once the post-mortem examination was done, the hospital would furnish the police with information that would help them to continue with their investigation.

The grieving widow, who said she has no one else in the world, appealed to the government and well-meaning Nigerians to help her find the killers of her children.

“My husband died last year and left me with the children, but now my children too are gone. I am now all alone. I don’t have anyone else. What did my children do that they had to kill them? What crime did my beautiful angels commit?

“I am begging the government to help me find those people that are responsible for the death of my children.

“Nigerians should please help me identify the people that killed my children and I will be the happiest person in the world before I will die”