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By Chioma Okezie-Okeh
At the age of 70, Pa Henry Ekienabor’s only wish is that the killers of his 35-year-old daughter, Mercy Henry, be made to face the full wrath of the law. 
“I want justice, although I wish she could come back alive,” he pleaded.
Mercy, who was last seen on December 16, 2021, was allegedly found mutilated and buried in different sacks behind a building in Lagos belonging to the prime suspect, Mr. Mayowa Timothy Bamidele.
According to our police source, Bamidele had repeatedly denied seeing Mercy and maintained that he last saw her four years ago. Bamidele and three other suspects linked to the matter have since been taken to Magistrate Court Two; Yaba while their file is presently at the Office of the Director of Public Prosecution (DPP.) The matter was adjourned to March 4,2022 while the suspects were remanded.
Tracing the history of the incident, Pa Henry Ekienabor told Saturday Sun that Mercy on December 16, informed her family that she was heading to Ijegun, a Lagos suburb in the Ikotun area, but never mentioned the name of the person she was going to visit.
“On December 16, I got a call from my son that Mercy didn’t return home to sleep. She had told everyone she was going to Ijegun, but she didn’t mention the name of the person she was going to see. That same night, her siblings started calling all her friends, asking if they had heard or seen her. One of her friends residing at Port Harcourt, named Ayo, said that she spoke with Mercy at noon. She said that Mercy called, asking for a loan of N30, 000, that she needed it for treatment at a trado-medical home, that she was short of blood and getting leaner. Ayo told us that she paid the money into a First Bank account bearing the name, ‘Mayowa Timothy Bamidele,’ given to her by Mercy. The money landed in the account at 1:59pm and at 2:02pm, Mercy’s phone number stopped going. Since then, we’ve not been able to reach her.
“The next day, we went to Gowon Estate Police Station to make a formal complaint, declaring Mercy missing. Using the information supplied by Ayo, the police went to First Bank and with the assistance of the Bank; Mayowa’s location was identified. He was living at No.17 Ijedodo Road, Ijede, Lagos. While in his house, he claimed to have seen Mercy four years ago when she came to his traditional birth centre to deliver a baby girl. But his phone history and chats showed that he and Mercy spoke on December 15 about 9pm. Then, if you call her phone it would be switched off, but at night it would ring twice or thrice, then it would be switched off. It shows that someone used to charge it,” he recounted.
He applauded the act of professionalism displayed by policemen attached to Gowon Estate Police Station. “ This was how the police started interrogating him. Luckily the competent policemen at Gowon Estate Police Station refused to grant him bail and transferred the matter to the State Criminal Investigation Department (SCID), Panti without collecting a dime. Police officers like that are rare in Nigeria. I strongly believe that he would have escaped if he was granted any form of bail.
“Luckily the detectives at SCID arrested four persons alongside Mayowa. During interrogation, the detectives appealed to the four suspects that anyone who gave them useful information wouldn’t be punished. One of the four men raised his hand and then volunteered information to the police. The police went there, searched the house and were able to trace the spot where Mercy was buried. Police recovered her handbag, Automated Teller Machine (ATM) card and her phone. These items were hidden in one of the uncompleted houses inside the blocks there. Till tomorrow, Mayowa is still denying knowing anything about the matter, but when the police brought him out of the cell after interrogating the other four suspects; he saw them and almost collapsed. Yes, he knows them. They are working together, so he couldn’t deny it.
“Police called my son on January 14, 2022, to tell us the development. I was hoping and praying that maybe they had been able to track and locate where her captors kept her. The police told us that she was murdered in cold blood, mutilated and then buried. After mutilating her corpse, she was then packed into five sacks and buried at the back of Mayowa’s house. Police have gone to the scene to exhume her remains,” he recounted in tears.
Pa Ekienabor, pleaded with government to ensure that the killers of her daughter do not go unpunished. “All I want is justice. No one carried us along when they were charged to court. It was when my son called to find the update on the matter that they told us that the matter had been charged to court.
“I am heartbroken and wish that somehow all these will go away and it will be proven that the mutilated body does not belong to my daughter. I don’t know how to explain to her children that their mummy is no more.
“All the men of God, women of God, pastors, Bishops, I went to, all assured me that Mercy was being kept somewhere, that we should pray, that she would come out. We didn’t know that she had been killed and buried for long. Yes, she was killed three minutes after her friend, Ayo, transferred N30, 000 into Mayowa’s First Bank Account.”
Meanwhile a human right activist and founder of Esther Child Rights Foundation, Mrs. Esther Ekwem Ogwu, who is assisting the family to monitor the case, told Saturday Sun that her foundation would ensure that government does the right thing by punishing the guilty ones.
“All we need is justice. No one has the right to take lives. People should learn to open up when their rights are abused. We are simply asking for justice for Mercy,” she stated.
The Lagos State Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), Mr. Adekunle Ajisebutu, who confirmed the incident, said that the matter had been charged to court.
