Graduate Awaiting NYSC Call-Up Lured, Killed In North-central Nigeria

A 24-year-old Mass Communication graduate of Benue State University (BSU), North-central Nigeria, has been reported killed after allegedly being raped by yet-to-be identified assailants.

The victim, identified as Joy Onoh, was reported to have been killed in North Bank, a suburb of Makurdi, the state capital after she was taken hostage on Tuesday, Oct. 19.

Onoh was said to have gone to make deliveries on the fateful evening to her supposed customers who had requested her retail products to be delivered to them, but she did not return to her widowed mother after the trip which she made in a hurry.

The deceased was believed to have also been raped before her eventual murder.

Her corpse was dumped on a bush path in Low Cost Federal Housing Estate in North Bank of Makurdi.

Speaking to journalists in Makurdi on Thursday, Grace Onuh, mother of the deceased explained that her daughter graduated from the university in March and while waiting to be mobilised for the mandatory National Youth Service Corps (NYSC), she decided to be selling casual outfits for both men and women.

The aggrieved mother added that although her daughter’s business was strictly online, she was involved in home delivery.

The mother disclosed that all efforts made to reach her daughter who never stayed out late that Tuesday evening after she left home to make the deliveries  at the North Bank area of the town, proved abortive.

“Joy never stayed out late. I was plaiting her hair when a customer called her to bring easy wear and T-shirt to north bank. So my daughter quickly abandoned the hair and took the clothes to the north bank.”

“I waited until she never came back, I called her line and it was busy all the time. She left the house at about 5pm and by 9pm I went to report the matter to police who found the body of my daughter the next day,” the woman said amid tears.

Confirming the incident to HumAngle, Catherine Anene, the Police Spokesperson in Benue State, said a case of a missing young lady was reported and that the corpse was later discovered in a nearby bush in the North Bank area of Makurdi.

In June, Blessing, a 300-level student of the Agricultural Science Department was also reported to have been murdered after being raped in her home in Tanke, Ilorin, Kwara State in Northcentral Nigeria.

Shortly after, Blessing Otunla’s unclad body was found in a brackish ditch in Iddo village, Abuja, Nigeria’s capital, on Sunday, May 23, 2021. Her death drew a spectacle of inquiry and anger.

She was a 24-year-old English graduate from the University of Abuja, and had travelled from Ibadan, Oyo State, Southwest Nigeria, on Saturday, May 22, to collect her Bachelor’s degree certificate.

Many believed she was raped and then brutally bludgeoned to death because of the status of her corpse. 

The two Blessings and Umoren Iniobong are just a few of the many who have lost their lives to the violence and atrocities committed against women in Nigeria.