The Yoruba of South-West Nigeria have a proverb which, when roughly translated, means, a trap actually set for a partridge ended up catching a monkey. So it seems in this story, as reported by OZIOMA UBABUKOH

Suspected hired assassins purportedly on the trail of an Enugu-based contractor, Mr. Alex Ude, have ended up killing his sister-in-law, Esther Nwodo-Agu, 27.

SUNDAY PUNCH gathered that about 1:30a.m. on Friday, March 2, 2012, as she attempted to save the life of her brother-in-law, Nwodo-Agu was brutally murdered by the suspected assassins.

Narrating the incident to our correspondent, Ude said that in the wee hours of that fateful Friday morning, he was woken up by a thunderous noise, but chose to lie back because he assumed that it was raining and that the noise could be as a result of the thunderstorm.

Shortly after, he said, he heard a knock on his bedroom door and, on opening, saw his security man, Mohammed, who informed him that some armed men had invaded the compound.

“I asked him how they entered the house and he explained that the armed men woke him and his wife up and took them at gun point to the house, and ordered him to knock on the door,” Ude began his story.

Ude said when Mohammed knocked on the door to the main apartment, his sister-in-law, Nwodo-Agu, who slept downstairs that day, asked who was at the door and Mohammed identified himself.

“She then opened the door and the armed man pushed Mohammed and his wife into the house, beckoning on his colleagues who were wearing masks to come forward as the door had been opened.

“When Esther realised that an armed man was behind Mohammed and his wife, she quickly closed the door behind the armed man and bolted it,” Ude said.

According to him, Nwodo-Agu took this swift action when the lone armed man was distracted as he beckoned on his colleagues to join him. With the assassin now in the same room with her, in frustration, he opened fire, killing her instantly.

Ude said he asked Mohammed for more details of what happened and the security guard said the criminals, on gaining entry into the compound, asked him where his “oga” was and he told them that he had travelled to Port Harcourt.

“They then asked Mohammed what part of the house my room was and he pointed to a different direction. They then asked about my wife and he told them that she went to the club, that it was only the maid that was in the house with the children. On seeing our cars, they warned Mohammed that if I happened to be in the house, they would kill him and his wife.”

Ude had called the police while the criminals were still in his compound, but the policemen arrived a little late, as the criminals had left. They then assisted him to carry Nwodo-Agu to the hospital, where she was confirmed dead.

The police were later to return to Ude’s house and asked Mohammed for a detailed explanation of what happened, after which they concluded that it was an assassination case.

“They (police) now asked me whether I had any suspect in mind and I said yes, and narrated my problem with one of the universities in the country and one of their contractors,” Ude stated.

  He further said that since the incident, he and his family had been living like refugees, hiding and living in fear, with his wife and children scattered in different locations.

On March 5, 2012, barely three days after the incident, another incident was reported where his wife took refuge.

“At about 2.00am, two men were seen trying to scale the fence of the compound and one of them was heard asking his colleague whether he was sure my wife’s car was parked in the compound. A woman who heard them then raised the alarm, forcing them to escape immediately,” Ude said.

Narrating his alleged case with the university and the contractor, he said that his company, Earthworks and ITAL Limited, bid for a road construction contract at the said university after undergoing pre-qualification processes, and emerged the best bidder at the cost of N325m, among three contractors that also bid for the job.

He said, “We were however surprised when we went to the university and saw another contractor on site, executing the project. We sought explanations from the university authorities and got none.”

He said that they then formally wrote the vice-chancellor for an explanation, but none was forthcoming. Thereafter, the company wrote a letter to the university, threatening to forward a copy to appropriate quarters if the issue was not addressed and reverted in their favour.

After several weeks when the university allegedly still refused to respond, he said, the company wrote a protest letter addressed to the Bureau of Public Procurement.

“When nothing happened after one month, we then forwarded the letter to BPP and copied other agencies of government. After a while, the BPP placed the contract on hold and started investigations.”

Brandishing copies of their letters to BPP and their response asking the university to re-award the contract to his company, Ude said the university responded by sending the contractor who was already executing the road project to discuss with the management of Earthworks and ITAL Limited at one Chief Omeluora’s office in Enugu.

He said that at the meeting, the said contractor, instead of trying to resolve the matter peacefully, resorted to threats, warning him that “fighting with him (contractor) was like fighting with an elephant.”

“Chief Omeluora was shocked at the statement, saying that he thought that the contractor was at the meeting to pacify me,” Ude said. Ude claimed that the meeting ended abruptly without the resolution of the issue.  

It was gathered that the BPP later invited the feuding parties to Abuja and at the end of the day, the university was said to have been indicted and instructed to re-award the contract to Earthworks.

The panel, Ude said, later asked the contractors at the meeting to leave, while the university authorities were asked to stay behind, so that they would be told what to do, or how to resolve the impasse. He said that a decision was later taken in his favour, while he was advised by a conciliatory party to withdraw his petition from the BPP, which he did. He was also advised to forgo the former contract.

However, when the university started foot-dragging and seemed to have reneged on the promise to award him another contract, the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission, and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission got involved.

Efforts to reach the contractor were futile but a very close source to the company told our correspondent that efforts were being made to resolve the matter amicably. He stated that impatience on the part of Ude and his group was responsible for the purported delay in amicably resolving the matter, as the university was following due process in their bid to award another contract to Earthworks, so as not to commit another blunder.

Meanwhile, the Police Public Relations Officer in Enugu State, Mr. Ebere Amaraizu, said, “We are looking into the matter and we hope our investigation would yield results.”