Chigozie Ogbuagu, a commercial tricycle driver from Umuobiala in Isikwuato LGA of Abia State, could not train his younger sister, Uzoamaka, in school. If a quiet Nigerian US-based philanthropist, Mr. Winston Tinubu, had not given scholarship to Uzoamaka and three other girls from that community, six years ago, Uzoamaka would not have had secondary school education, because her family could not afford to give her one.

Chigozie and his father, Augustine, were more interested in monitoring Uzoamaka, an 18-year-old Senior Secondary School student of Queen of Apostles Secondary School, Umuobiala, to ensure she was never seen around boys. And on December 4, 2023, according to Vanguard report, when Chigozie saw Uzoamaka with some boys, he took her home and together with his father, beat Uzoamaka until they broke her spine!

From that December 4, the family hid Uzoamaka at home without making any effort to take her to hospital until she became paralysed and bedridden. In adherence to our acquired culture of ‘see nothing, hear nothing, and say nothing’, everyone in her family, her community and her school who must have known what happened to Uzoamaka, decided to be silent, until she died on January 17, 2024!

If Mr. Winston Tinubu, Uzoamaka’s benefactor, had not raised the alarm from his US base immediately he heard about this, though belatedly, the family would have succeeded in covering up this heinous crime. Uzoamaka would have been secretly buried and forgotten.

The claim by the family that they could not take Uzoamaka to hospital because they didn’t have money was not convincing. Footing her hospital bills would have been a little thing for Mr. Winston if they had informed him early enough that Uzoamaka, whom he had been sponsoring in school from JSS 1, was seriously ill.

As tragic as it may be, it is good to hear that Chigozie and his father are now in the custody of the Abia State Police Command. We hereby appeal to the Governor of Abia State, Dr. Alex Otti, the Abia State Commissioner of Police, and the Inspector-General of Police to ensure that Uzoamaka’s death is thoroughly investigated, and everyone who directly or indirectly contributed in cutting short her promising life are brought to book in accordance with the law.

Justice must not only be done for Uzoamaka, justice must be seen by everyone to have been done. Otherwise, there will be no deterrence for others who may want to murder their sibling or child in the erroneous assumption that nothing will happen to them because the child is theirs.

It is sad that the only way Mr. Chigozie and his father could show appreciation to Mr. Winston Tinubu, a Yoruba man who for six years spent his hard-earned money to give education to their daughter whom they could not afford to send to school, was to murder Uzoamaka because they saw her in company of boys.

We all have a duty to help, in whatever way we can, in stopping the senseless killing of our young ones who are the future of our society and country.

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