•Late Somtochukwu
A neighbour of the deceased Arise News presenter, Somtochuwku Christelle Maduagwu, has narrated what transpired on the night the late presenter died and the robbery attack at her place of residence.
Maduagwu, a 29-year-old lawyer, model, and presenter, died on Monday during a robbery attack at her residence, reports The Guardian.
The neighbour, @lifegivingsun, narrated her experience in a series of posts on X (formerly Twitter), a microblogging platform.
“We thought our apartment was safe — it’s in a very secure area. We thought our doors were strong; they got knocked. We thought we were safe with armed security, but about 15 hoodlums still attacked us, knowing they’d get away with it,” she wrote in a post.
“About past 3 a.m., I woke up stark naked to about four armed men who broke down my door and rushed in with machetes and guns. They robbed all 18 flats in my building — cash, electronics, two cars (one being a diplomatic car) — killed two people (Sommie and a security guard). Still traumatised and in shock.”
She added that it was Maduagwu’s scream that alerted the neighbours to the robbery in the building. She blamed the police for not arriving at the scene of the robbery immediately.
“And she shouted, she screamed! It was her scream that woke most of the neighbours, alerting us to the fact that we were under attack. But no emergency service, no sense of urgency from the policemen who showed up immediately, and the hoodlums ran away! I am livid and deeply heartbroken.
“The most heartbreaking part was no one noticed her for so long — until I went downstairs to see what on earth just happened to us and found her lying face down. I was screaming for a car, but the mobile police had no urgency. A neighbour tried his best, gave her CPR, but she was gone,” she narrated.
In another post, @lifegivingsun explained that the armed robbers split themselves into groups, and there were four of them in her apartment.
There have been different accounts of how Maduagwu died. Some accounts described her death as an assassination, while others did not.
Responding to an X user who asked why Maduagwu was murdered and if she put up resistance, @lifegivingsun noted that none of them (referring to the occupants of the building) know why she was murdered.
“None of us really knows unless there’s CCTV footage or an autopsy. Everyone is just making assumptions about what might have happened.”
She also urged members of the public to stop spreading the notion that she was murdered by assassins.
“Need people to stop spreading this agenda that they were assassins. They robbed a whole 18 apartments in less than 15 minutes. We don’t all have a conclusive reason for how she died because we found her lying flat in her blood, with no pants on,” she wrote in another post.
