By Lillian Okenwa
“The weakest ones are the wickedest cruel
When the strongest ones in gentleness rule!”
― Ana Claudia Antunes, The Witches Of Avignon
“One of the common failings among honorable people is a failure to appreciate how thoroughly dishonorable some other people can be, and how dangerous it is to trust them,” said Thomas Sowell the American political thinker. That perhaps was the error of judgment made by James Achipi Korshima of Vandekiya local government area of Benue when he sent his nine-year-old daughter, Precious Korshima to live with one Mrs. Ujunwa Ugwuoke in Enugu.
Sometime in December 2022 little Precious died under very bizarre circumstances that is currently being unraveled by security operatives. Her family is still stunned. Ujunwa Ugwuoke of Fidelity Estate, Okpara Avenue, Enugu, under whose care Precious was, allegedly whipped the little girl to death. Precious was her maid.
The police disclosed that when Precious passed out on account of the excessive violence allegedly meted out on her by her mistress Mrs. Ugwuoke, the older woman took the child’s lifeless body to the University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital (UNTH) at Ituku-Ozalla near Enugu city for medicals.
The doctors on duty confirmed Precious dead on arrival. When that happened, Ugwoke according to the police swiftly took the body and dumped it in a refuse site along Ugbo-Nwagidi Village Road, Enugwueze Uno-Ituku community in Awgu Local Government Area.
The Police also revealed that Ujunwa Ugwoke ran away to Abakaliki in Ebonyi State, from where she sent a false alarm claiming that the deceased, her little child, and herself, were kidnapped and taken to an unknown destination, on 9th November 2022, while on their way back home from Independence Layout, Enugu, where she had gone to refill her Gas Cylinder.
The suspect while at Abakaliki, claimed that the kidnappers demanded a ransom of twenty million naira (N20,000,000.00) for each of them. However, she reappeared on 16th November 2022, claiming that the kidnappers spared her and her child but shot Precious dead.
The case has been transferred to the Homicide Section of the State CID Enugu from the New Haven Police Division, where it was previously reported as a case of kidnap upon her confessional statement. Ugwoke has since been arraigned in the Enugu North Magistrate Court and remanded in the Enugu Maximum Correctional Centre. The police has equally been ordered to transfer the case file to the office of the Attorney General for Advice.
James Achipi Korshima, the 37-year-old father of the late Precious, told a human rights organisation, Civil Rights Realisation and Advancement Network (CRRAN) how his suspicions were raised about his daughter’s death and sought justice to be done about her death.
The Port Harcourt resident said his daughter was murdered. “Sometime in March 2022”, he told CRRAN, “a businesswoman, Mrs. Nelly Okoroafor, who lives here in Port Harcourt approached me and pleaded with me to release my little daughter, Miss Precious Korshima who was nine years old to be trained in school through her friend in Enugu, (Mrs. Ujunwa Ugwuoke). She told me that it would be her own little way of helping Precious since I am just an upcoming artiste and to also help Mrs. Ugwuoke look after her newborn baby.
“I released my little daughter to Mrs. Okoroafor and subsequently she was sent to Mrs. Ugwuoke who lives in Fidelity Estate, Enugu. She was living with her until November 10, 2022, when I received a strange phone call from an unknown number. The caller claimed that they kidnapped Mrs. Ugwuoke, her baby, and Precious, my daughter, and demanded a ransom of N20 million.
“I pleaded with the alleged kidnappers that my little daughter was only a house help and that I had no means of raising such an amount of money. I also appealed to the alleged kidnapper that I would get in touch with the family of Mrs Ugwuoke. Like I promised, I got in touch with Mrs Ugwuoke’s family and the husband who lives abroad. To my greatest surprise, they all feigned ignorance of the alleged kidnap.”
According to Korshima, Mrs Ugwuoke and her own daughter in a bizarre turn of events were allegedly released from the kidnappers’ den and his little Precious was alleged to have been murdered. At that point Korshima said he immediately reported to the New Haven Police Station in Enugu. The DPO of the station later told him that the matter had been transferred to the Anti-kidnapping Squad Unit of Enugu State Police Command.
“It was after some days at the anti-kidnapping base that Mrs Ugwuoke admitted that she beat Precious to death and dumped the corpse off at the Port Harcourt Expressway immediately after the military check point just after UNTH,” Korshima recounted.
The grieving father said the police told him that when they got to the place were Precious’ body was dumped, they learnt that the Igwe of the community gave an order directing the youth to burn the decomposing body because of the offensive smell.
A Tuesday January 31 post on Mr Korshima’s facebook wall reads: “There was happiness in my home until the Devil stole it away. It will be restored back in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen. Justice for precious.”
Another bizarre incident took place in Benue State where a 40-year-old housewife, Charity Upev, and her son, Tertsea, allegedly beat an in-law to death over meat. Mother and son have been remanded in a custodial centre in Benue State
Sequel to the death Fanen, the police charged Charity and her son with criminal conspiracy and culpable homicide. The prosecuting counsel, Inspector Jonah Uletu, told the court that on 24 January, the Divisional Police Officer of E Division Police Station, Makurdi, received information that Charity and her son beat up Fanen, her in-law living with them. The prosecutor said Charity claimed that her in-law stole meat from her pot of soup.
Fanen, the police said became unconscious on account of the beating and was rushed to a hospital. He died while receiving treatment.
Then in Germany, a woman actually found her lookalike on Instagram, killed her, and faked her own death.
The alleged perpetrator identified only as 23-year-old Sharaban K. killed beauty blogger Khadidja O., also 23, in Ingolstadt, Germany last August, according to investigators. Khadidja O. was brutally stabbed more than 50 times, with her body left on the back seat of Sharaban K’s Mercedes. Sharaban K. and an accomplice identified as her boyfriend Sheqir K. then went into hiding.
When the body was found, police traced the car’s registration to Sharaban K.’s family. Given that the corpse had been disfigured, investigators assumed that she was the victim. However, a subsequent autopsy report uncovered that the actual victim was Khadidja O., prompting an investigation into the bizarre case dubbed the doppelganger murder by German media.
The police have charged Sharaban K. with murder. Prosecutors say she searched Instagram in a bid to find a victim who matched her physical appearance. Attorney General Veronika Grieser told local publication, Bild: “It has been confirmed that the accused had contacted several women via Instagram before the act who seemed to look similar to her. It can be assumed that the suspect wanted to go into hiding, due to internal disputes with her family, and fake her own death.”
According to investigators, Sharaban K. connected with beauty blogger Khadidja O. via Instagram sometime last summer, sending her messages about cosmetics. She reportedly enticed the victim into meeting up by offering her a set of beauty products.
On the day of the crime, Sharaban K. told her parents that she was going to visit her ex-husband in Munich. Instead, she and her boyfriend Sheqir K. allegedly picked up Khadidja O. in a Mercedes.
At some point, investigators believe they turned off into a forest where Khadidja O. was stabbed more than 50 times. The injuries to her face were so severe that she was rendered unrecognizable.
Sharaban K. and Sheqir K. then allegedly parked the Mercedes in a place where it would be easily discoverable, leaving the body in the backseat.
When police learned that the victim was not Sharaban K. as initially suspected they were baffled. They subsequently looked into her social media correspondences and discovered that she had connected with multiple look-a-likes. They formed the theory that she had murdered one of the women in a wild bid to fake her own death. Sharaban K. was subsequently tracked down, officially charged with murder, and faces life in prison if found guilty of the gruesome crime. Sheqir K. has also been charged as an accomplice and is similarly facing jail time.
