The late Chukwumalu’s house
Residents of Amokpo-Nike community in the Enugu East Local Government Area of Enugu State are worried over what could have led to the death of Dominic Chukwumalu, his pregnant wife, Chinaza, and three children; Chioma, Oluebube and Blessing. Doctors are currently battling to save the family’s 10-year-old lone survivor, Arinze.
On Wednesday, April 29, the people of Amokpo-Nike woke up to witness a heart-rending spectacle of the death of five members of the Chukwumalus in their house.
The Chukwumalus of Eziowelle, Idemili North Local Government Area of Anambra State, it was gathered, were last seen on the night of Monday, April 27. But they were discovered dead on Wednesday morning with their body peeled.
It was also gathered that nobody knew about their death until somebody who worked with the late building contractor, Chukwumalu, one Mr Sunday Eze, went to look for him on appointment but found his house locked and vehicle parked.
Eze, a mason, raised the alarm which led to the discovery of the death of the family members.
Speaking about the incident, Paul Chibuike, Chukwumalu’s brother-in-law, who first saw the bodies of his sister, her husband and kids before alerting the neighbourhood, stated, “I was contacted by one Sunday Eze who worked for my late brother-in-law. He told me that he dialled his phone for nearly two days but nobody answered the calls.”
The grieving Chibuike who is the younger brother to Chukwumalu’s late wife, added, “Eze told me that he went to my sister’s residence because he was to work on Wednesday, April 29 with my brother-in-law.
“To be sure that the appointment was still valid, on Tuesday, he tried my brother-in-law’s mobile phone from afternoon till night and nobody answered the call. On Wednesday, he continued calling the mobile and still no answer.
“Out of curiosity, he went to check him at his block industry site but didn’t see him. He saw one of his friends, Emeka and asked whether he saw my brother-in-law. He was told that he (my brother-in-law) didn’t come to work even the previous day.
“Emeka told Eze according to him that the man that gave my brother-in-law the contract to build a house which they were supposed to have started that day also said he dialed his mobile but nobody picked the call.
“As he became worried about his boss’ whereabouts, Eze went to the New Market to see the mechanic who repairs his vehicle, but again met a brick wall as he didn’t see him.’’
He continued in tears, “When he was told by the mechanic that my brother-in-law was last seen the previous week, Eze decided to trace him to his house. When he got there, he saw his vehicle parked but saw nobody as the doors and windows were locked.
“He shouted his name but no response. He later saw a woman who also came to the house to check on my sister and asked her whether she saw anybody in the house. The woman told him he didn’t see anybody. Being nervous, he decided to check on me at my apprentice workshop.”
Chibuike who was visibly troubled told Saturday PUNCH that his late sister who was pregnant and her four children came to visit them and left around 7pm on Monday, April 27.
“The children came to see their grandma and their mother came to pick them on Monday,” he stated.
He further stated, “Eze asked me to call my sister to know whether they were with my mother at home. I called and I was told that they were not in our house. I then called my late sister’s mobile and her husband’s but nobody picked the call. I then begged Eze to accompany me to my late sister’s house and he obliged.
“When we got there, I knocked at the door many times but nobody responded. I went to the backyard and started opening all the windows and peeping. When I opened the last window by the kitchen, I saw all of them heaped in one room and flies surrounded them.
“I shouted and called Eze that my brother-in-law and family had died. I ran back to the front of the house, broke one of the windows, protector and entered the house. In the house, there are two doors leading outside; the main door from the front and the backdoor through the kitchen. While I was crying, people from the neighbourhood gathered in amazement. After crying, I called my sisters and uncle and told them what I saw in my brother-in-law’s house.”
Chibuike further narrated that other doors in the house were open except the entrance door connecting the passage.
He stated, “It is only the passage door that visitors use to enter the house. The house has an exit door through the kitchen.”
Describing his brother-in-law as a good man, Chibuike recalled how the deceased took care of his siblings.
He added, “I lived with them for three years when they lived at Amoji-Nike before they moved to their own house in 2019. I left them to stay with my mother in the town because it was closer to where I am learning vocational skills. My brother-in-law was not a troublesome person. I noticed that when I lived with him, nobody complained of anything against him.
“My immediate elder sister, Onyedikachi, was living with them at the new resident in Amokpo-Nike community but because she was preparing for examination before the outbreak of coronavirus, she came to stay with us at Ugbene 1, Abakpa Nike.”
He said Onyedikachi would have been killed too if not that she was plaiting her hair when her sister and kids were leaving for their home that day.
“That Monday, she was to accompany them to their house. She was plaiting her hair and decided to see them on Tuesday as my late sister took her kids home. She didn’t remember to visit them as she promised on Tuesday, otherwise she would have been the one to discover the incident,” he said
Chibuike appealed to the police and other security agencies in the state to help to unravel the mystery surrounding the incident.
“The incident as I saw doesn’t suggest how they died as my sister’s husband knelt down and held his kids. I think he was struggling to save his family. That explains why he was in that position. I believed that during the incident they might have shouted for help but people didn’t hear them.
“I felt that if people lived close to them, they might have saved some of them. He held his son and one of his daughters, while my sister lay at the edge of the wall and the surviving son was beside his father,” he stated.
Eze also explained how he called his boss’ mobile from Tuesday till Wednesday without a response before contacting Chibuike.
He stated that he was surprised because Chukwumalu called him on Monday that they had work to do on Tuesday and that prompted him to call him on Tuesday to no avail.
Eze said, “Chukwumalu told me on Monday to come on Tuesday for we were going to work. When I called his mobile phone on Tuesday, there was no response. I was forced to go to his house on Wednesday. When I wanted to enter his house, I could not because there was a dog there. I went to his brother-in-law who took me to the house and a window was opened. Then, we saw the dead bodies. The man covered his kids with his hands as if they were praying or he was covering them from danger.’’
The lucky lone survivor
It was gathered that the Unity Police Station at Ibeagwa Nike, the Chairman of Enugu East, Alex Ugwu and the UN rescue mission were contacted and mobilised to the scene.
Our correspondent learnt that in the process of bringing out the corpses, one of the children, Arinze, screamed and he was rushed to the University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital, Enugu, where he was said to be responding to treatment.
Ugwu told journalists that the late Chukwumalu was a good person, wondering how he would die in that manner.
He attributed his death to a possible food poisoning since there was no generator to suggest that it could have been caused by fumes.
He stated, “When I heard about the incident, I alerted the police and the Ministry of Health to it. It was when the officials of the Ministry of Health were trying to evacuate the corpses that one of the man’s children sneezed and was discovered to be alive and rushed to the hospital.”
Collaborating Ugwu’s statement, Eze said “As a health official was spraying chemical, one of my boss’ son, Arinzechukwu, screamed and was taken to a hospital near the area. But the doctors there rejected him before he was taken to UNTH.’’
He stated that the corpses of the family were equally rejected by the same hospital before they were taken to another hospital the following day.
Meanwhile, the South-East Zonal Commander of the United Nations Rescue team, Emmanuel Okoye, told journalists that they went to the scene when somebody informed them that a man and his four family members were killed.
He added that they assisted in taking the corpses to the mortuary.
The state Commander, United Noble Rescue Services, Obiekwe Fustinus, said “A club member of the late Chukwumalu called us and we gave them rapid response by moving there immediately and when we got there, we witnessed the incident.’’
He described the incident as beyond human understanding, saying that “when the rooms were open, all the family members were inside the children’s room. All of them lay down except the man (Chukwumalu) who knelt and held his two children.
“More so, their bodies had started peeling as if something was poured on them. It is only the survived child that can give account of what happened. We cannot attribute it to food poisoning otherwise how come the man knelt and held the children. There was nothing on the ground to suggest that they ate or drank something.”
Residents, police react
A resident of Amokpo community, Joseph Umoke, told Saturday PUNCH that the incident was shocking, noting that such death was novel in the community.
Umoke said, “When I heard the news, I didn’t believe it at first but I later did when I discovered that it was true. When we saw what happened, the police were immediately contacted including the local government chairman who incidentally is from Amokpo and living few meters away from the deceased house.
He appealed to the state government to do everything possible to unravel the mystery surrounding the incident.
A local security officer who spoke on condition of anonymity described the man as peace-loving, saying no one complained about him since he relocated to the area.
Speaking about the incident, the state Police Public Relations Officer, Daniel Ndukwe, told our correspondent that autopsy would show cause of the deaths. He said, “Investigation is on to unravel the circumstance surrounding the deaths.” (Saturday PUNCH)
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