PATHETIC: How man, 45, was killed while returning from night-out with family

•Circled are spots through which the armed
robbers’ bullets penetrated Mr. Nwachukwu’s
car. Inset is late Ignatius Nwachukwu.
Photos: Oluwatoyin Malik. Ignatius Nwachukwu didn’t know the night-out he had with his family was to bid them farewell. Oluwatoyin Malik reports the pathetic story of how the father of four was killed by gunmen as he returned home with his family after the dinner.

Mr. Ignatius Nwachukwu was a loving husband and a
doting father to his children. And at all times, he loved to express the deep affection he had for his family members, both nuclear and extended. So, it was a painful thing that he was not available on 9 April, to celebrate his first son, Kelechi’s 14th birthday. To make up for this, Mr. Nwachukwu decided to take his wife and four children out in the evening of Friday 11th April; more so, that Kelechi was to go and resume school the following day where he is boarder.

To many residents of Eleyele area of Ibadan, Oyo State, IG, as Mr. Nwachukwu was fondly called, was well-known. However, he wasn’t a local champion. As an electrical appliances/electronics merchant, he had worked with so many organisations, hotels, hospitals and other business concerns through the supply of electronics goods. This brought him in contact with the high and the mighty.

Howbeit, he did not allow this to get into his head. People were easily drawn to him and customers thronged his shop at Idi-Ope and Benjamin areas of Eleyele for patronage. It was indeed a good outing for his family as everyone enjoyed him or herself but Mr. Nwachukwu, however, was unaware that it would be the last meal he would take with his family. As he made to return home on that fateful night, at almost 10 p.m, his bubbling life was brutally terminated by the hot bullets that spewed from the guns of armed robbers, less than 100 metres to his abode.

According to information gathered by the Nigerian Tribune, Mr. Nwachukwu had gone to Koko Dome with his family and was returning to his home at Are Avenue in Bodija. As he got to Are junction beside Tantalisers and made to drive along Are Avenue to his home, Mr. Nwachukwu was said to have noticed a car trailing him. Suspicious of the car and the occupants, since that particular spot had almost become notorious for armed robbery, the electronics merchant slowed down a bit, trying to see whether the car would speed past or try any funny thing. He had thought that it would be safer to be closer to the main Bodija-Secretariat road than to try and speed towards his house.

As he suspected, the car trailing him drove past him but immediately double-crossed his car. Seeing that his suspicion had been confirmed, Nwachukwu quickly engaged the reverse gear and made to enter Moremi Street which was the first turning on the right as one enters Are Avenue. Unfortunately for him, as if death already had him by the jugular, the gates leading to the road were firmly locked. He made to reverse again to get to the main road but the armed bandits outwitted him. Immediately he made the first move to escape, they started shooting and a bullet pierced his back number plate. As he made to drive away from the locked gates, the robbers stopped him with several gunshots aimed at his side of the car. That was how he got hit in the left side of the lower abdomen and toes while bullets also penetrated his wife’s thighs. He also had a cut on the head, most likely from the splinters of glass.

Nigerian Tribune learnt that the gunshots attracted policemen from Bodija housing division who had already been sent on patrol by the DPO, Mr. Aduroja, when the division got the information that armed robbers were in town. As one of the policemen in the patrol team made to cork his gun, one of the armed robbers shot at him and the bullets caught him in the right inner thigh. The robbers thereafter made their escape.

Oblivious of her own injury, Mrs. Rose Nwachukwu quickly pushed her husband to the back while she drove to a nearby private hospital few metres from the spot of the incident, J-Rapha Clinic, but the staff on duty said they could not handle the situation. The brave woman then drove further up to their residence which shares a fence with another private hospital, St. Vincent Clinic. It was even at this point that Nwachukwu’s junior brother, Kenneth became aware of the calamity that befell his brother. According to Kenneth, “I was at home when my brother left home with his family. His wife’s brother came on a visit too. They left together but in different ways. I was in my own apartment but went to my brother’s apartment to change the channel of the DSTV.

“Suddenly, I heard loud and consistent knocks on the gate. I approached the gate to find out what was happening but what I heard was the shout of my nephew shouting ‘Brother Kenneth, come and help us, our daddy is dying’. I quickly rushed out and saw the car parked in front of the hospital. As we knocked on the gate of the hospital and shouted that they should please come out to help, nobody came out to open the gate of the hospital not to talk of attending to my brother, despite telling them we were their neighbours next house.

“I decided to take him to UCH then but saw that a bullet had hit the front left tyre. I quickly went into the compound, brought out my car and put him in it with his wife. At that time he was alive and leaned on me to get into my car. I drove to the casualty and we were able to get the Chief Medical Director of UCH, Prof. Abiodun Ilesanmi on phone who instructed that he should be attended to speedily. He was put on a stretcher and pushed into a side room. Even when I was told that I should pay a sum of N3,000 and I discovered that I didn’t leave home with anything, my brother was the one who patted his pockets and asked me to take money from there.

“Later, he was not breathing well and the doctors brought in oxygen and started pricking him. At a point, I was told to go out. Very close to him, his wife was also being managed. However, before I left the room where my brother was, may be he realised that he was dying, he called me and said “Kenneth please help me take care of my children”. “I was outside when I noticed that a stretcher covered with something like a coffin was wheeled into where my brother was. When it was being taken out, I asked one of the doctors whether that was my brother but he said no, that my brother had been taken to the Intensive Care Unit (ICU).

“Later, the coffin-like stretcher was brought in again and as it was being wheeled out, I asked a nurse whether that person was dead, she said yes. I then told her that my brother was taken out in the same container but she said it was not so, as my brother was in the ICU, I believed her, not knowing my brother was dead. That was almost 12.30 am on Saturday 12 April.”

Nigerian Tribune learnt that the news of Mr. Nwachukwu’s death could not be broken to any of his family members until Sunday when Kenneth was told. Some other close relations and friends who thought he was still alive continually upheld him in prayers in their different churches and fellowship, unknown to them that the spirit had departed the body known as IG Nwachukwu.

Nwachukwu’s wife, Rose, a 36-year-old woman, had since undergone two surgeries to remove dead cells from her thigh before the grafting of the wound site would be done. It was learnt the news was just broken to her on Tuesday 22 April, as many were afraid of what her reaction would be. Anytime she asked for her husband, she was told he had been transferred to South Africa when his conditiion became ciritical.

After the news was broken to her, Nigerian Tribune gathered that she was silent for a very long time that people around her were scared. Since then, it was learnt that she would cry a little and talk a little. Rose lost her mum in January this year to Leukemia and her mother’s death devastated her so much as the old woman was said to have suffered on her children alone because she lost her husband very early in the marriage. As the children had grown up and had planned a befitting living for their mother, death snatched her away. Rose was particularly close to her mother and her husband had promised to care for her like a mother. Unfortunately, death had broken that promise.

The Nwachukwu’s four children were saved by the whiskers as they were all seated at the back of the Toyota Sienna 2007 model space bus with registration number Abuja FA 942 ABC. The Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), Oyo State, Ms Olabisi Okuwobi confirmed the story. Meanwhile, friends of late Nwachukwu has decided to contribute N3 million towards his burial as they would not want the family members to worry about that. Also his shops at Eleyele had remained under lock and key. The mystery to be resolved now is whether it was an assassination case or armed robbery attack. Those who are thinking along the assassination line are of the view because nothing was picked from his car after the shooting but those who see it as armed robbery think the robbers were annoyed that Nwachukwu tried to outsmart them and the presence of the police shortly after must have prevented them from taking anything. However, Nwachukwu’s brother, Kenneth said they were yet to recover his brother’s phones and that of his wife.

Forty-five-year old Nwachukwu still has both parents living. His mother lives in Ibadan while his father who lived in the village back home was stylishly brought to Ibadan before the news was broken to him. Many friends are still mourning the loss of the man described as humble, down-to-earth and loved by all while atttention is being called to the increasing wave of armed robbery and killing within Ibadan metropolis.