The bodies of three siblings were found in a water tank with their throats slit by unknown assailants in the Berger area of Suleja Local Government Area of Niger state.
The siblings are the three children of a widow identified as Chinedum Aro.
Narrating how it happened, the widow said she had always left her children at home even before the death of her husband last year, adding that they would not open the door for anybody including the neighbours.
“They were washing clothes at the time I was going to the market. Each time I leave them at home, I instruct them not to open the door for anybody and they always obeyed. My door is always locked and they were not the kind of children you would see playing outside; they were always inside the house,’ the widow narrated.
“The only time you would see them outside was when they were going to school or church, and once they returned, they would enter the house and lock the door. The day the incident occurred, I instructed them as usual that if anyone should come and tried to force the door open, they should shout and the neighbours will come out, then I left.
“When I returned from the market in the evening, the door was closed but not locked. I knocked but no one answered. When I entered the house, all the curtains were down, and I wondered what kind of sleep they might have been sleeping. I searched the whole house but I did not see them.
“I asked the security man about them and he said he did not see them come outside. I had to call my neighbours to tell them what happened and we started searching everywhere but we did not see the children.”
Retiring for the day worried, Aro woke up the next morning with a shout from the security man who had gone to her tank to fetch water but found blood coming out from the tap instead of water.
Alarmed, they checked inside the tank and saw the bodies of the three children with knife cuts around their necks. The tank had to be cut to bring out the bodies of the children.
“When my house help wanted to fetch water on Sunday, he saw blood coming out of the water tank, and when we checked inside, I saw my three children all dead,” she said amid sobs.
The Niger State Police Command said they are doing everything possible to get to the root of the matter.
Spokesperson of the command, DSP Abiodun Wasiu, who disclosed this in an interview with newsmen on Tuesday, March 16, said the police are doing everything possible to get to the root of the matter.
“We are conducting a diligent investigation into the matter. We are trying to unravel the mystery behind the deaths. I assure you that after our investigations, we will make our findings public.” DSP Wasiu said.
He urged residents of the state to report any suspicious person or object in their environment to the nearest police station.
“We appeal to members of the public to cooperate with the command by assisting us with information that will help us to fish out whoever was behind the crime,” Wasiu added.
The corpses were taken to the Umaru Musa Yaradua Memorial Hospital, Sabon Wuse where they were certified dead and kept at the hospital’s mortuary.
The shock of the death of her children caused the grieving widow to collapse and has since been admitted into the hospital where she is currently receiving treatment.
Nurses in the hospital said she was being kept there for fear of what she could to herself if she was left alone in the house. They feared that she might commit suicide or slip into depression.
The grieving widow, who said she has no one else in the world, appealed to the government and well-meaning Nigerians to help her find the killers of her children.
“My husband died last year and left me with the children, but now my children too are gone. I am now all alone. I don’t have anyone else. What did my children do that they had to kill them? What crime did my beautiful angels commit? I am begging the government to help me find those people that are responsible for the death of my children. Nigerians should please help me identify the people that killed my children and I will be the happiest person in the world.” she pleaded.
