Find My Father’s Killers, 19-yr-old C’River Schoolgirl Charges IGP

A 19-year-old Senior Secondary Schoolgirl, Stella Mbayin Ndoma, has charged the Inspector General of Police, IGP Usman Alkali Baba, and the Cross River State Police Commissioner, Aminu Alhassan, to find the killers of her father, late Chief Mbayin Ndoma a.k.a Otisco.

Chief Ndoma was murdered by hoodlums on August 3, 2022 at his Orimekpang village in Boki LGA of Cross River State, for allegedly daring to banish some youths suspected to be cultists from the community.

Stella made the call while reacting to the death of her father, which she said cannot be swept under the carpet as if her late father was a chicken.

“I am shocked when I learnt that my father, late Mbayin Ndoma, who was a traditional ruler in Orimekpang Community, Boki LGA of Cross River State was shot to death by hoodlums and not even a fly has been arrested in connection with his death,” she said.

Recall that some young men in the Orimekpang Junction community were banished for years by the community for thier alleged involvement in cult activities.

Irked by the community decision, the banished youths were said to have storm the community at night and murdered the traditional ruler, Mbayin Ndoma, in cold blood for daring to banish them from their community.

Narrating how her father was killed, the 19-year-old schoolgirl told LEADERSHIP that her father got a phone call from an unknown caller, who asked him to leave his home at about 12:20am, claiming some assassins were coming after his life.

Stella stressed that immediately her father fled from his home, the assassins who are suspected to be cultists, stormed her father’s house and harrased his wife, Queneth, and demanded to know her husband’s whereabouts.

According to Stella, her step-mother told the the assailants that her husband wasn’t at home.

“The assassins spent some time in the house waiting for the traditional ruler to return home probably for them to unleash mayhem on him.

“At about 6am, as my late father tried to return home from the community  secondary school where he had gone to take refuge, the assailants attacked him, dragged him to the community secondary school in Orimekpang, which is about a stone throw to the traditional ruler’s house,” Stella narrated.

She added that upon her step-mother hearing the sound of a gunshot and because her husband was yet to return home, she quickly ran to the community youths and informed them that she heard a gunshot around the community school, stressing that her husband was yet to return home since he left home in an ungodly hour.

She said that the community youths mobilised with the village vigilantes and went to the secondary school premises, only to find the corpse of the traditional ruler in the school compound.

“His assailants left a note on my father’s corpse with an inscription, ‘This is the beginning of war  between the community and us. Any man who squizzes bitter leaf, his hands would be bitter’. With another threat note, saying ‘Anyone who intends to dare us should wait for his turn’,” she added.

Reacting to the development, the Cross River State Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), SP Irene Ugbo, who confirmed the incident, stated that preliminary investigation had already commenced by the Police in Boki LGA to enable them find the killers.

“The police is already liasing with the leaders of the community to find a way forward on how to apprehend the killers of the traditional ruler,” Ugbo stated.