Mourners continue to visit the Lugbe home of a couple who tragically lost their lives in a car crash in Abuja.
The incident occurred after an encounter with roadside touts, popularly known as “agberos.”
According to reports, the couple, Mr Emeka Ihekwereme and his wife, Mrs Chikodi Ihekwereme, were confronted by three touts who forcefully entered their car, leading to a crash at the Mabushi flyover bridge on Wednesday afternoon.
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The couple were rushed to the Abuja National Hospital, where they were pronounced dead. The three touts were held captive by sympathisers, two of whom were later set on fire. The third was rescued by the police and taken to the hospital.
Our reporter traced the family’s home in Breden Estate, Lugbe, in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), where Weekend Trust learnt that the deceased couple are survived by four sons: Divine, Bright, Daniel, and Golden Ihekwereme.
Mr Ihekwereme, a building contractor from Umuahia, Abia State, and his wife, a trader who sells foodstuff at a shop in Trademore Estate’s market, had been married for 18 years.
Divine, the eldest son, studies abroad, while his seventeen-year-old brother, Bright, has completed secondary school and is awaiting university admission. Speaking to our reporter, Bright recounted the tragic events of that day. He said he was looking after his mother’s shop while his parents were on their way to the city centre to purchase a freezer for her business.
“Then a customer came looking for something that needed my mother’s confirmation about the price,” Bright explained.
He added, “So I called my mummy’s phone, but someone else answered. The person who picked up, a woman, immediately asked if there was an adult with me. I told her that one of my mother’s regular customers was here. I gave the phone to the customer, and after they spoke, I later learnt that they went to one of my aunts and told her about my parents’ deaths.”
Overcome with emotion, Bright spoke of his parents. He described his late mother as a kind-hearted person who helped many people, and his late father as a man devoted to God and determined in everything he did.
Mr Chidibere Ihekwereme, ounger brother to late Emeka, also spoke to Weekend Trust. He said he was at work when he received the call about his brother and sister-in-law’s deaths.
“I immediately drove to the Abuja National Hospital where they were rushed after the accident,” he said.
“I went straight to the emergency section, where I learnt they had already passed and their bodies had been taken to the mortuary.”
He said,he spoketo a police officer who brought them to the hospital noting that the police officer informed him that the touts were struggling with his brother for the car’s steering wheel, causing him to lose control and crash into a bridge’s pillar. Chidibere recalled the officer telling him that his brother and sister-in-law did not die instantly but were still alive when they arrived at the hospital.
Speaking about the nature of the injuries, Mr Chidibere explained that although they have yet to receive the official doctor’s report, but based on what he saw at the mortuary, his sister-in-law’s head was severely shattered, while his brother had sustained an injury around his forehead down to his nose.
The bereaved family are said to have secured all the necessary court documents for the embalming process, and the couple’s bodies will remain at the hospital morgue until burial arrangements are finalised.
Another relative of the deceased, Mrs Rose Jewel, lamented the hospital’s policy, stating that her brother and his wife were left unattendedto despite being brought in by the police.
“Our hospital’s management needs to change their attitude toward their insistence on getting a relative’s signature for the hospital bill before attending to a victim,” she said. “The same people would demand a police report before attending to a victim if they were taken to the hospital by a family member,” she added.
She also voiced her concerns about the unchecked activities of roadside touts at Abuja’s popular bus terminals, which she described as very dangerous.
“How would you allow three people to jump into your car when you are not sure whether they are kidnappers or armed robbers?” she asked.
The family urged the FCT minister to urgently put an end to “agberos” operation on FCT highways.
Market declares 2-day mourning
Our correspondent learnt that the Trademore market, where Mrs Chikodi Ihekwereme ran her business, has lost another member.
A different couple, MrLeonard Uzoma and his wife, Mrs Chioma Vivian Uzoma, were reportedly killed by a trailer truck while in their home state of Enugu.
The market declared a two-day mourning period that ended on Thursday in honor of both couples. The chairman of the trader’s association, Dr Chibuke Loveday, described the deaths as a devastating incident that shocked the entire market.
He said that on the day of the incident, Mrs Chikodi had come to the market and left with her husband to buy a fridge for her business.
“They had already made the purchase,” he said, “but the fridge couldn’t balance well in their car’s trunk, which attracted trouble from the touts.”
He said that following the incident, the association reached out to the family and mourned with them, keeping the market closed for two days.
He noted that the news of the incident reached the market around 1 pm on the day it happened.
Dr Loveday added that further discussions and actions would follow while lamenting that both deaths were not natural but were “incidents where they were pushed to their deaths.”
