Follow Us on Google
My heart is bleeding and aching. Girls, girls, adolescent girls, I earnestly appeal to you to help your parents. Stop breaking their hearts. Your avoidable death of girls at a very tender age is causing parents excruciating pains.
That 20-year-old Justina Otuene was allegedly killed by her supposed boyfriend, 24-year-old Damian Okoloigwe in his house along NTA road, Port-Harcourt, Rivers State, left a bitter taste in the mouth of her parents. Late Otuene was a 300 Level Biochemistry student, while her alleged killer was a final year Petroleum Engineering student, both of University of Port-Harcourt. When this news broke, what filled my heart was the thought of Justina’s parents wondering how calamity befell them. Yes, deaths occur in many ways, but some deaths are shameful. Maybe her mother would think she had failed as a mother for not bringing her daughter up very well. No, woman, you did not fail as a mother. You watched your daughter as she grew to become an undergraduate, who was about to graduate before she fell to the other side. A girl sent to school by her parents to achieve greatness and better her own life died mysteriously in the home of her supposed boyfriend. Since then, her parents and their family friends have continued to shed tears over the death of Justina.
The harvest of death of young people is alarming and should not be. Some attribute it to the lifestyle of young people who belong to the Gen-Z age bracket, and flout the rules that guided their parents. What is the benefit of breaking the rules? Do they even consider their parents while taking such careless and irresponsible decisions? Parents would have gone through hell in raising some children, facing various challenges, yet the children disappoint and bring them shame. Oftentimes, when Gen-Z children break rules, they think that their actions will just fizzle into the thin air unnoticed. Only if they knew that their future will abruptly end when a crime and possibly murder is committed. Probably today, Damian, the alleged killer who is cooling his feet at the police station, is filled with regrets over his dastardly act. And now awaiting arraignment for killing Justina, allegedly for money rituals. The young man was sent to the university by his parents or guardian, to earn a degree. While other students were studying, he was busy calculating how to kill and become a sharp rich boy, faster than his mates. Only if this will teach others a big lesson and serve as a deterrent that crime will never go unpunished. While his mates were at school, studying to pass their examinations the Rivers State Police Command paraded Damian for killing Justina. He was alleged to have cut off her breast and plucked out her eyes for alleged rituals. What an extremely callous thing which only a depraved, stone-hearted person could do. Students who are meant to bond and become brothers and sisters turned to become killers. I have not forgotten our days in the university, when a female student, Beatrice Newben, was involved in an accident as she tried to use the toilet. The old WC seat collapsed and the broken part gave her very deep cuts on her fleshy buttocks. She bled profusely and rolled on the floor until the boys in her class heard her screams. They forced the door open. Some held the torn flesh together, others held her head, trunk, two feet and moved straight to the health centre even as blood gushed and stained the boys. They were not deterred but were focused on a mission to save her life, not minding she was naked. They did all they could, stood with her until the doctors wheeled her into the theatre. All students who heard about the accident rushed to Unilag health centre immediately in solidarity, stood at the health centre until their classmate was wheeled out of the theatre. It was not like today, when some heartless students would have been taking shots of her with their smartphones and quickly uploading to the social media platforms. Imagine the shock of her parents seeing the pictures online. Female students volunteered, missed classes and took turns to support her before her family finally arrived from Bayelsa State. That was a demonstration of the true spirit of studentship, bonding, togetherness and love for each other, at all times and not this killing spree among students.
Interestingly, questions have been raised on the issue of students living large as undergraduates. If Damian was living in the school’s hostel, he would not have been able to kill Justina and remove her vital organs because the presence of his roommates would have been a hindrance. In our days, students lived on campus. Ever since schools started operating these off-campus apartments, the rate of crimes associated with students has increased, ranging from ritual killing, cyber-crime and disguised prostitution. For the fact that these students pay house rent means they are entitled to their lifestyle and will not tolerate any form of disturbance from anybody unlike when they are in school where there are rules and regulations. And erring students who flout the hostel rules, go beyond the boundary are penalized. Students should live and behave like students. Authorities should look into such cases and accredit schools with hostel and boarding facilities before the school starts functional operations. This idea of students living off campus has caused greater harm than good for the schools, parents and the society at large, apart from the major distractions and disruptions that have become the order of the day with off-campus lifestyle. A lot of evil has manifested from privately-owned hostel facilities. Something urgent and drastic needs to be done to avoid future occurrences. Schools that allow students to live in privately owned hostels should borrow a leaf from a certain private university, where no doors to the hostel are locked. The reason to give relevant school officials quick access if the need to fish out erring students and punish them.
Now, I want to ask these Gen-Z youths a vital question: must every young student be identified with a particular boyfriend or a girlfriend? Will heavens fall if one chooses to avoid immorality? I ask this question because when interrogated by the police, Damian claimed that Justina died in her sleep, though in his house. Granted, some friendships (not sexual relationships) that started in school have led to beautiful marriages. What if Justina had refused his advances and chose not to visit him? How can someone not understand her boyfriend’s conduct, especially when he was alleged to be a Yahoo Plus boy, who must commit ritual killing to boost his business. Maybe Justina had enjoyed some juicy perks from previous killings and now it was her turn to be sacrificed. Perhaps, she may have enjoyed expensive hair frontals, 18-inch bone-straight hair, expensive jewelries and designer bags and shoes. Only if she had known she would be the next target.
Smart girls multitask to buy whatever they want in life. Everybody can never be Chioma Davido or Regina Daniels in terms of what money can buy; but hard work, self-content, confidence will also keep you afloat. Stories of girls being killed by their boyfriends fills the internet space. When a girl refuses love advancement, she is killed; she agrees to date a boy, she is killed; today it is Justina and her parents’ sad day. Who will be the next victim?
Girls, please do not allow yourselves to become victims of ritual killing, for the ritualist to enjoy life. Run away from danger when you notice the first sign of it in your boyfriend. Keep your antenna out to pick up the signals about his evil character which may try to conceal. Don’t try to rationalize his suspicious acts. Who is the boy that is sleeping with you today? What language does he speak? Language of get rich-rich-quick? Mind you that marriage with you might not also be on his mind. Please walk away and be safe. Be alive.
