DISTURBING PICTURE: Pastor’s wife raped & murdered in her bedroom

Posted by admin Headlines Tuesday, January 11th, 2011

Late Mrs Iwuchukwu
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Wife of the Pastor of Victory Baptist Church, Spiba Road, Akwakuma, in Owerri, Imo State, Mrs. Stella Ikpendu Iwuchukwu has met a gruesome death right in her bedroom. Mrs. Iwuchukwu was raped and strangled in her home by unknown persons suspected to be assassins. Her killers also left a written note to her husband. It reads: “Prayer man, this is just a warning.”

The incident happened on Thursday, December 9, 2010. The husband had bid his wife farewell that morning when he was leaving the house for the Nekede zoo to have a quiet time with God. After the act, the killers disappeared, leaving the bloodied corpse of their victim half naked on top of the couple’s matrimonial bed.

Speaking to Daily Sun, Pastor Ozioma Iwuchukwu said the story and circumstance of his wife’s death was beyond him.
His words: “On the 9th of December, I told my wife to prepare the kids for school while I went to the poultry. I left home for Nekede, and while there I was called to come back home, that there was emergency in the house. I got home and saw my wife lying on the bed with blood everywhere. I hired an ambulance and rushed her to the hospital for them to see if there was anything left as life in her. On getting to the hospital, it was confirmed that she was dead.

“Prior to this, on November 27, 2010, a strange man who could not be identified came around the church premises when no one was around. As I came back, I met the man, though not well dressed, neither was he shabbily dressed or tattered, lying on a mat at the church corridor. He was in his late thirties or early forties.

“When I saw him, I went to him and greeted. Instead of responding positively, he responded with a question ‘Are you surprised to see me here?’ I answered yes and no at the same time. The strange man continued, ‘Well, I’m a messenger sent to the church. When your pastor comes back, tell him that this place where your church is built is a dustbin and it’s our sanctuary/ altar. You people should leave this place or stop disturbing us.’

“He was not harsh, but he spoke with a smile on his face. ‘You can also ask other pastors who have been here before what happened to them. Some were frustrated out of this place either through financial hardship, sexual disgrace etc. You can also ask your prayer warriors why they don’t meet again.’

“At this point, I became impatient with him and asked him to leave or face the consequence of his speech. Without wasting time, the man picked up his mat and left. He crossed the road and went to a Toyota Camry car neatly parked by the side of the road, opened the boot, threw in his mat, opened the door of the car, entered and drove off. But before he left, he told me one last word: ‘Well, I’m only a messenger and I have delivered my message.’

“On November 28, a Sunday, I conveyed the message to the church and the church prayed over it. Then within two weeks, this incident happened, and a note was left on top of my bed with a message: “Prayer man, this is your warning, we are watching.”
The man was very logical during the argument with him over his decision to come and lie down with a mat on the passage of church premises. I had not seen him before. It was two weeks after that encounter that the incident happened.

“The death of my wife is surrounded with a lot of mysteries that are yet to be unraveled. She was waiting for her admission at the University of Calabar, Department of Medicine. The marriage is just three years old; we got married on October 20, 2007. She was a down to earth person, always smiling.
“I was not at home when the incident happened, but the story I was told was that the children came back home to behold the ugly sight of their mother lying half naked in the house. When they saw her, her skirt was pulled up to her stomach, indicating that she must have been raped before she died, or maybe she was killed and raped, I don’t know. When I came, I opened her underwear and saw that her panties had been torn.

“Then I entered the room and saw the note that was left there. People in my street told me that there was no shout indicating that there was an attack. Some people saw her by 12 pm. Another crippled young man said that he saw her around noon and they greeted. I think that was the last time anyone saw her.
“Maybe people were planted in the house or that they trailed her to the house to rape and kill her. For now, I feel that I am being sliced every minute and that I am walking close to my grave. I also feel that I was the one they came for and that my wife died the death I should have died. Apart from this boy, that is my son, I feel that I am getting close to my grave every passing day.

“I have been a pastor for 13 years in the Baptist Church. I started ministering since 1996. I have been in this branch for three years. If I should talk as a human, I will want to see those who killed my wife and use my hands to execute them myself. But as a priest, the Bible says that there is no peace for the wicked and that God should on his own mete out punishment for those who did this atrocity.”

Daily Sun gathered that so far, president of the Nigerian Baptist Convention, Rev. Dr. B.U Enyioha, immediate past Executive Secretary of the ANIMOE Baptist Conference, Rev. F. E. Okere, the current Executive Secretary of the new Imo Conference, Rev. B.I Nwosu, and a close friend of Pastor Ozioma Iwuchukwu, Pastor Everest Iheanacho of the Baptist Chapel (a.k.a Family Worship Centre) Aba, have visited the scene and consoled him over the death of his wife.

They were all said to have prayed that God would handle the issue in his own way. Rev. Dr. B.U Enyioha, president of Nigerian Baptist Convention was quite defiant. He said: “The church of God is still marching on and the gates of hell cannot prevail.” At press time, an autopsy report to ascertain the exact cause of her death is still being awaited from Aladinma Medical Hospital.

-Sunwp_posts