Cynthia Udoka Osokogu‘s photograph was all over the
internet. She had been missing since late July 2012, however, the news
became viral just a few days ago.
24 Year Old Cynthia, left Abuja
in late July 2012 (According to reports, on the 22nd of July 2012).
Like
many enterprising young people, the post-graduate student of Nasarawa
State University was a clothing retailer and had travelled to Lagos to
purchase new stock.
Cynthia had been chatting with some new
“friends” on Facebook for a few months.
In the course of their
conversations, they developed a friendship and a level of trust.
These
young men were also university students, they seemed normal and promised
to host Cynthia when she came to Lagos.
There is speculation that they paid for
her plane ticket and promised to pay for her hotel as well. Only Cynthia
knows if this is true.
Whatever the truth is, Cynthia trusted her new
friends and had no idea that they had sinister plans.
What we know is that, these 2 young men picked Cynthia up from the airport in Lagos and drove her to a hotel in Festac.
At the hotel, they
tied her up, robbed her of all the money she brought to shop for her
business and strangled her to death.
They then left the hotel and quickly deleted her from their facebook friend list to remove any trace of their connection.
The hotel found her body and since her ID cards and mobile phone had been stolen, they could not identify her or call friends and family.
Her body was deposited in a morgue in Lagos.
All this time, her family and friends were praying for her safe return.
At some point, one of the culprits accidentally answered Cynthia’s phone and the call was traced to Festac.
Therefore, her missing person’s
police report was submitted to the Area E Command in Festac.
This
enabled her family to find her body in the morgue and also led them to
the hotel.
Using CCTV from the hotel, the killers were identified.
According to
reports, these two young men are university students who have now
confessed that they killed Cynthia and she is their sixth victim – the
gang reportedly specializes in luring unsuspecting young women, robbing
them of their possessions before killing them.
Though there is
speculation that their motive was ritualistic, it appears that it was
greed and they main goal was to rob and kill.
The pharmacist who
supplied the drugs used on Cynthia and hotel staff have also been
arrested. According to Police spokesperson Ngozi Braide,
“Six people were arrested on Sunday over the incident and investigations are ongoing”.
We have seen so many online comments judging Cynthia.
This could have
happened to anyone. With social media, this false sense of comfort and
trust can be very misleading.
We know couples who met on Facebook or BBM
groups and are still together.
If you ask them if they took security
measures to protect themselves when they first met, many will confess
that they did not.
We hear of friendships built on twitter and BBM,
where the first meeting was in the home of one of the friends.
Cynthia was the only daughter and
the last born of her parents – Major General & Mrs Osokogu.
She was
dotted on by her three elder brothers and parents.
Tovuti ya bellanaija
She was vibrant and
enterprising. Everyone misses her so much! May Cynthia’s gentle soul
rest in peace.
No comments:
Post a Comment