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PAUL ORUDE BAUCHI
Mother of Sunday Joshua, the security man beaten to death over a
missing phone in Bauchi State, has pleaded with government to ensure
that justice is served to those who killed her son.
Joshua was beaten and abandoned half naked at New Trafford Hotels and
Suites in Bauchi, on May 24, 2020, while the phone he was accused of
stealing was returned the next day by a corps member.
The bereaved mother, Mrs Olpha Joshua, in an interview with Daily Sun
correspondent in Bauchi, on Thursday, said the perpetrators must be
brought to book.
“I am pleading with the government to ensure that my son did not die
in vain. I am just a poor woman. Government should ensure that justice
is served to those who killed my son,” she said.
The mother of six disclosed that Sunday, born on July 20, 1992, was
her first child and was
“I was in Kokona Local Government Area in Nasarawa State on the 25th
of May when my brother called me that Sunday has died. I asked him
what happened? Was he sick or involved in accident? He said Sunday was
beaten to death. I started sweating all over my body,” she said.
“I sat down for 30 minutes. What came out of my mouth was Jesus I
thank you. I later called my brother and asked him, my son was beaten
to death, was he involved in a fight? Or what? He told me that a
handset was missing at his place of work and he was accused to
stealing it. He said he didn’t take any handset but they insisted that
he was the one that took it.
“The owner of the hotel brought out a belt and started beating him.
After beating him, he ordered his staff that were there to also beat
him. They beat him mercilessly and eventually he died,” she said.
“It is so painful to me because till today I can’t sleep. I tried to
forget the sorrow and pain but I always think about the cry he cried
before he died”
She wondered at the mercilessness of those that beat her son to death.
“Those beating him, didn’t they have sympathy? Maybe as they were
beating him, he was crying and pleading his innocence, begging them to
stop beating him. I can never stop imagining him crying that he didn’t
steal the handset, but they refused to hear his pleadings. I wish this
thought will leave my mind, but I always think about the way he cried
for mercy, and how long he cried yet no body to help him. Perhaps if
someone had intervened he would still be alive today,” Olfa said.
The bereaved mother described that her late son as a good person.
“My son called me three weeks before his death to greet me and asked
of his siblings. I told him they were fine. Sunday was not a child
that liked trouble at all. He was not stubborn. He never stole. He
neither drinks alcohol nor smoke. If you ever see Sunday angry, he was
hungry. Once he ate and was satisfied, he would start playing and
laughing. Sunday was a hardworking person. He was known to work hard
to finish the job if he is guaranteed the pay. But stealing? I have
never received report that my son stole,” she said.
