The Amutenyi Community in Obollo-Afor, Udenu Local Government Area of Enugu State has been thrown into mourning following the discovery of the bodies of a woman, her two children and two sisters.
They were Mrs. Chinyere Odoh, her two (2) children: Udochukwu Odoh ‘f’ aged 7 and Chukwuemeka Odoh ‘m’ aged 4bas well as her two sisters Martina Ezeme and Ngozi Ezeme.
Their corpses were discovered in two separate rooms inside their apartment on Saturday morning.
It was gathered that concerned neighbours, who noticed their unusual absence, raised the alarm as the woman’s husband, Rev. Adolphus Odoh, was said not to be at home.
Odoh, a teacher in Community Secondary School (CSS), Ehandiagu, Nsukka LGA, is resident in Obollo Afor, where he was posted as a pastor in an Anglican Church.
A villager said it was when the husband returned home that he and neighbours broke the door to discover that the entire family had died.
The villager said: “The family is from Ehandiagu in Nsukka L.G.A but based in Obollo Afor.
“We learnt that the man returned in the morning found his house still locked inside. He knocked and called out, nothing. He also called his wife’s phone number, it was ringing inside without response.
“He called his neighbours who told him to break open the door. It was after that the they found the lifeless bodies. All five were already dead.
“The two are the man’s only children while the other two deceased are sisters to the wife. One of them was taken for autopsy while the rest have been deposited in the mortuary”.
Another source said: “It was early morning Saturday when the husband of the deceased Rev. Adolphus Odoh came back from where he passed a night and discovered that their doors were still locked and his wife, two children and two relatives of the wife were no where to be found.
“He looked for them around the neighborhood but they were no where to be found. After looking around, they decided to break the doors only to discover that the five persons were still inside the room but were stone dead.”
Enugu Commissioner of Police Ahmed Ammani described the incident as unnatural death.
He ordered the State Criminal Intelligence and Investigation Department (the State CIID) of the Command to conduct a full-scale investigation to unravel the circumstances surrounding the sudden and unnatural death of the victims in their apartment.
In a statement by the spokesman of the command, Daniel Ndukwe, the CP informed preliminary investigation showed the deceased persons went to bed the previous night and were not seen in the morning.
“However, their lifeless bodies were found in two (2) separate rooms they slept in, when Police Operatives from Udenu Police Division of the Command, who swiftly responded to a distress call on the incident, forced-opened the doors of the rooms.
“They were immediately moved to the hospital and confirmed dead by doctors on duty, and their corpses deposited in the mortuary for preservation and autopsy,” he said.
The Commissioner, while describing the incident as unfortunate and expressing his condolences to the family members and friends of the deceased persons, further directed that the investigation be thoroughly carried out and concluded within the shortest possible time.
