Posted by By GODDY OSUJI, Enugu on
After several suspense filled days, waiting in vain for the return of her husband who traveled to Lagos to confirm his return ticket to the U.S. where he was based, what Mrs.
After several suspense filled days, waiting in vain for the return of her husband who traveled to Lagos to confirm his return ticket to the U.S. where he was based, what Mrs.
Gloria Ogbodo received instead was a shocking phone call informing her that the corpse of her heart throb had been deposited at Oji River General Hospital mortuary, waiting for identification.
Her condition was further compounded when she saw the corpse of her husband, Mr. Nduaguba Ogbodo, at the morgue.
Ogbodo had in the morning of the fateful day, 11th January 2005, called his wife to go to Ekene Dili Chukwu Enugu bus terminal to wait for his arrival, as he was coming home having concluded every arrangement for return to his US base.
After several trips to the station without seeing the husband, Mrs. Ogbodo became apprehensive, though officials of the transport company assured her that there was nothing to worry about since there was no reported road mishap or armed robbery attack and all their buses that made the Tuesday journey returned to base safely.
More worrisome to the mother of three was that nobody could disclose what led to the shooting of the U.S. based businessman by a police escort attached to the Ekene Dili Chukwu luxury bus Ogbodo boarded on that fateful day.
According to the distraught woman, 'on the 11th of January 2005, my husband boarded Ekene Dili Chukwu 1st Bus to return to Enugu. On the evening of the 11th, 12th and 13th January, I went to the office of the transport company to find out why my husband had not returned. The officials of the company told me that they knew nothing about my husband and that none of their buses was involved in any accident.
'I concluded that maybe he stopped over at Onitsha to see his brother. When nothing was heard about him, I went back to Ekene Dili Chukwu office and all efforts to see the manager was frustrated. I was terribly shocked when on Friday 14th, information came from Police Abakaliki road station indicating that my husband's corpse had been found along Enugu Onitsha Express Road and that the body had been deposited at Oji River General Hospital Mortuary. Before then, I had started
receiving unusual visitors which forced me to rush to my parish priest to pray for me, that I am having a premonition that something catastrophic was about to happen to me. It was when the brothers came and I asked them about Nduaguba. Without uttering a word, one of them broke down in tears. It was then it dawned on me that my husband was dead. Few days later two policemen one Sergeant and an Assistant Superintendent of Police were detailed to accompany us to the mortuary to identify my husband's corpse".
Gloria who lived in U.S. with the husband before relocating to Nigeria told Daily Sun how some of the passengers who were in the bus narrated to her the circumstances that led to the death of her husband. The bus, she was told, left Lagos at about 9am that day and had some mechanical problems along the road that caused its late arrival to Enugu.
'It was when they got to around Ezeagu area around 7pm or thereabout that the driver announced to the passengers that armed robbers were operating and ordered them to run into the bush for safety. After a while they were asked to come out from their hiding places. It was while they were boarding the vehicle and my husband being the last passenger was about entering when the police escort prevented him, saying he was not one of the passengers. He protested and even the passengers identified him. In the argument that ensued, the police escort pulled the trigger and shot him.
They abandoned him on the road. Despite shouts and screams by passengers, the bus continued its journey. Perhaps if he was picked and rushed to the hospital, he would have survived it. It was one Rev. Fr. Onaga who reported to the police patrol that he saw somebody lying on the road that he believed needed help. It was after they had identified him as a priest that they rushed to the scene and took him to the hospital either dead or alive".
The woman, who looked haggard and terribly worn out from weeping wants to know the truth of what happened to her husband wondering how he could be shot like a common criminal when it was obvious that he was Ekene Dili Chukwu passenger, which was corroborated by other passengers. 'I want everybody and even my God to tell me what happened to my husband", she cried out. 'We have been married for 11 years and have three male children.
At Ekene Dili Chukwu, a source confirmed the story. But when the manager of the station, Mr Okechukwu Nnamdi was contacted on phone after several visits to his office, he said: 'my drivers don't carry gun, ask the police escort what happened".
The source further confirmed that the driver, conductor and the police escort were arrested and detained by the police.