INEC officer, three other female bodies found in room in Anambra

Details emerged, yesterday, on the discovery of four female dead bodies in a room in Ifite area of Awka, the Anambra State capital. The Anambra State police command discovered the dead bodies in a room occupied by a couple on Olisa Onyeka Crescent near the Commissioners’ quarters in Awka GRA.

Two of the dead bodies were said to be holding Holy Bible at the time they were discovered and they might have gone to pray with the tenant of the room when they met their death.

One of the victims and a tenant in the building, Mrs. Chinwe Obi, a Grade Level 14 officer with the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, hailed from Uruagu, Nnewi. Until her death, she was the electoral officer for Onitsha South Local Government Area.

It was also gathered, yesterday, that the husband of Mrs. Obi, who returned to Nigeria from Cotonou, Benin Republic, died about a week ago in the same room and the body is still in the mortuary.

The state Commissioner of Police, Mr. Hosea Karma said that following volunteered information, he went with his men to the scene and discovered the bodies after neighbours tried Mrs. Obi’s telephone line severally without any response. According to Karma, the decomposing bodies of the women had been taken to the hospital for autopsy.

The CP said: “A report came to us that a woman was being called on phone without anybody picking it for two days and we had to mobilize to her residence. On getting there, we had to force the window open and saw the bodies lying on the floor. “The bodies found in that room were without bruises which was an indication that there was no attack from anyone.”

Karma said that the other three women, whose identities had not been known, were being suspected to be her church members who came to sympathize with her over the death of her husband.

The police commissioner said, however, that the police discovered a generating set and a remnant pot of soup suspected to be carbon monoxide or food poison respectively. The commissioner disclosed that the soup as well as their bodies had been taken to mortuary for examination.