23rd August, 2012
The Catholic Archbishop of Onitsha, the Most Rev. Valerian Okeke, has urged the police to investigate the death of a lady, Miss Francisca Okoli, who was murdered after resisting being raped. Okeke made the call on Thursday in Onitsha in an interview with newsmen.
Okoli, 23, was murdered after she resisted attempts by a five-man robbery gang to rape her during a dawn raid on her home in Awka-Etiti, Aguata Local Government Area of Anambra.
The incident occurred on Sunday, July 29.
“I deplore the orgy and wanton killing of an innocent citizen as that particular lady could not have provoked her assailants by any means,’’ Okeke said, and called security operatives to fish out the people behind the act.
Francisca’s father, Mr George Okoli, said that the gang broke into his home with shotguns, machetes, cudgels and other dangerous weapons.
“My attempts to save my daughter’s life failed when the robbers cut me with a cutlass and chased me out of the room where I saw them tear the dress and underwear of my daughter in a bid to rape her.
“In the process, she was beckoning on me and invoking the mercy of God and anybody that could save her even as she resisted them. Angered by her continued resistance, the robbers made good their threat to kill her by hitting her with a pistol on the head, neck and waist.
“I could not do anything because they locked us inside one room and one of them was on the door threatening to kill us if we opened the door.
“The gang searched all the rooms in the house and stole some little cash and valuables. Due to the shock which overwhelmed me and my wife, we waited until about 6.30 a.m. after the robbers had left with some of our belongings only to discover that our daughter had been killed with bruises all over her body.
“Her head was smashed with an object, may be a pistol,’’ Okoli narrated.
Dr. Donald Nwasike, who received the body of the deceased at Our Lady of Fatima Hospital, Awka-Etiti, noted that the lady was badly brutalised with severe head injuries and was foaming in her mouth.