A Woman killed while preaching early morning in Abuja

A female early morning preacher was yesterday found dead in Bolar – pipeline area of Kubwa in Abuja.

The woman is believed to be a wife of a pastor in the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG).

Residents of the area claimed that they heard her preach as usual around 5am but found her lifeless body around 6am.

A male resident, who sought anonymity said, he heard her voice early in the morning.

He said: “I heard her voice as usual in the morning around 5am preaching and at a point, her voice faded.

“By the time I woke up to start my morning chores, I started hearing people say that a dead body has been found in my area.

“On getting there, I discovered that it was the body of the woman preacher. She is such a nice and jovial person, she doesn’t deserve to die at all and if at all, not in that manner.”

On how the woman was found, he said: “She was practically slaughtered. Her legs were injured and she was lying in the pool of her own blood before policemen came to evacuate her body.

Another resident simply known as Idris said: “I heard her preaching today like every normal day.

“Later on, I heard someone screaming but because of the security situation in the country, I decided not to come out.

“By the time I came out, I saw people gathered discussing the death of the woman. I believe if most people had come out when she screamed, she would have been saved.

Another resident, Uju lamented the security situation in the area despite paying for security levies.

She said: “To think that we pay for security and this place is not protected is saddening.

“What is the work of the security men? Most times when you are coming home late, you will find them sleeping and in some cases, you don’t even see them at all.

“I think something has to be done urgently to beef up the security in this area because no one deserves to be killed.

When a call was placed to the security outfit in charge of the area, Sam & Co to get the details, its head Mr. Sam, said: “I saw a deep cut on one side of her stomach and her leg.

“She was not stabbed. I feel if she was stabbed, we would have met her gasping for breath. But when we got to her place because we heard someone shouting blood of Jesus repeatedly, she was already gone.

“The community has two points of entry and we were asked to close one of the entries because a meeting was to be held in the morning. So, we were there doing that around 5am when Muslims were going for prayers and the Christians who went for vigil were returning.

“This is a woman who preaches every morning. She always admonishes people to repent and that the kingdom of God is at hand.

“We heard someone shouting the blood of Jesus and we noticed that the rate at which the person was calling the blood of Jesus was too much. But before we got there, she was in the pool of her blood.”

He said her corpse was taken to phase four police station for further investigations.

The FCT command’s Spokesman, ASP Anjuguri Manzah told News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) some suspects have been arrested over the incident.

“We have made some arrests and they are helping in our investigation.

“The commissioner of police has ordered the homicide section of the command to take over the investigation of the case,” he said.

The spokesman, however, did not mention the number of suspects arrested.

He said that personnel of the command had visited the scene of the incident and investigation had started.

Contacted, the Federal Capital Territory Police Public Relations Officer, ASP AnjuguriManzah initially said he was not aware of the incident.

Hours later when our reporter called back, Manzah said: “I have not confirmed because they changed the DPO and I don’t have the new DPO’s number.”

He however pleaded for more time to get details.

All efforts to reach him for updates as at the time of filing this report proved abortive.