Mrs. Oreku Odogbunwebe, a grieving widow from Ndiagu Amofia Umuhu village in Eha-Amufu, Isi-Uzu LGA, Enugu State, has recounted the tragic killing of her only child, Deacon Donatus Ndubuisi, by suspected Fulani herdsmen on February 28.
Ndubuisi, fondly called “Ofunwa,” had traveled home from Enugu metropolis, where he was residing, to visit his mother.
According to Oreku, they had spent the morning together harvesting cassava, yam, and cowpeas on their farm before returning home.
As they went about their chores, gunshots suddenly rang out in the distance.
Initially, they did not think much of it until the sounds grew louder.
At that moment, Ndubuisi’s uncle, who was working in a nearby palm plantation, was shot.
Frightened, Oreku and her son ran in separate directions.
Unbeknownst to her, Ndubuisi had already been struck by a bullet. When the attackers eventually left, she began searching for him, calling out his name repeatedly, but there was no response.
A search party was later formed, and his lifeless body was discovered.
Devastated, Oreku lamented the irreparable loss of her only son.
“My own lineage and his lineage just closed because he is the only child of his father and my only child. That’s why I have refused to be consoled,” she cried.
She described Ndubuisi as a diligent and kindhearted young man, who had recently graduated from university and was preparing to begin his national youth service.
In addition to his academic achievements, he was also a skilled photographer and electrician.
Expressing her despair, Oreku said she had lost everything and was now struggling to survive.
“I need clothes, I need shelter to stay alive, and I need food. I am going to die of hunger because you can see me that I am no longer a child.”
She appealed to the government for assistance, particularly a place to live, as she was currently squatting in someone else’s home.
Oreku also called on authorities to take decisive action against the armed herdsmen responsible for her son’s death.
Reflecting on their last moments together, she recounted:
“I had told him to go and marry so that I will nurse his children when I am still strong. He would tell me if he goes and marries now, who will support him. We don’t have help, but God has been faithful.”
She narrated how her son had arrived home on February 27 to spend time with her.
He had planned to return to the city after the weekend, but the fateful attack cut his life short.
“That day, one of my relations met with him and told him that he should not sleep in Ndiagu Amofia (farm settlement). When my son came, he told me what our relation had said, but at the time he got to the settlement, it was already night. As a human and a mother, I asked him to stay back and sleep because night had already fallen. I was not comfortable letting him go back to the town that night.”
She recalled that he agreed to stay, and they spent the next morning working together.
“In the morning, we prayed together, and I asked him whether he would be going back that morning, but he said he would be going back to the town in the evening. He said he would accompany me to the farm that morning.”
“We left very early, and before 9:30 am, we were already back. We only harvested some cassava, yam, and cowpeas. When we came back, I cooked food and finished before 12 noon. After he assisted me in processing the cassava, he ate and fetched water for me.”
Later that day, while they were working at home, gunshots erupted nearby.
At first, they thought it might be the Fulani herdsmen again, but the sounds soon grew alarmingly close.
“We started hearing gunshots, but we didn’t know where the sounds were coming from. My son said maybe the Fulani herdsmen had come again. I told him that the gunshots were sounding different. It was around 2 pm that we started hearing the shooting.”
“We continued working, and after a short while, we heard another gunshot. This one sounded close, and we didn’t know that they had approached our house.”
“His uncle, who was inside the palm plantation clearing weeds, was the person the invaders shot. We didn’t know the next thing; my son shouted in a loud voice, ‘Jesus,’ and we ran. Because we didn’t know the direction the gunshot came from, we ran in different directions. I didn’t know that they had shot him.”
When the assailants finally retreated, Oreku frantically searched for her son.
“After they had gone, I came out and started looking for my son. I went through the direction he ran to, shouting his name, thinking that if he heard my voice, he would come out from where he was hiding.”
“After the search, I went to my brother, Osita, and informed him that I didn’t see my son after the attack. He then went and informed the entire Amofia village, and youths immediately formed a search party to look for him. That is how I lost my son, my only child.”
Struggling with unbearable grief, she recounted her family’s history of tragedy.
“All my relations died prematurely; his father also died tragically. He was killed by enemies, but I didn’t know that this kind of tragedy would befall me again.”
Despite her heartbreak, she recalled Ndubuisi’s selflessness and devotion.
“This, my son, was not a troublemaker. If he returned home and I asked him to go out and mingle with his peer group, he would ask me if that was what he returned for.”
“Even that fateful day, when we were returning from the farm, I asked him what items I would carry, and he asked me if I liked suffering. He carried all the things we harvested from the farm, and I followed him. That was the last help I would get from my son.”
She expressed frustration over the lack of meaningful support from authorities.
“The government people asked me whether I saw the assailants and knew that they were Fulani herdsmen. They didn’t even bring me food or anything to assist me. So, I told them how would I know the assailants. However, the chairman of the settlement saw the assailants and identified them as Fulani herdsmen.”
“It was the same day they killed my son that his house was razed by the same assailants. His nursing wife saw them when they invaded his house wielding AK-47 rifles and forced them to flee.”
She called on the government to take action, noting that such attacks had never happened in their community before.
“Fulani herdsmen, since they started coming to drink water from the Ebe Onuku River, had not crossed the river and entered our village until now. This is the first time they have done so. They are not living here; they are living in Agala land in Benue State.”
Her story is a sobering reminder of the human toll of insecurity and violence in the region.
While the government has promised to investigate and bring the perpetrators to justice, many fear it may be too little, too late.
As the community mourns Ndubuisi’s death, tensions remain high.
Residents continue to call for justice and meaningful action to prevent future tragedies.
