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A 24-year-old Mass Communication graduate of the Benue State University (BSU), Joy Onoh, has been killed by yet-to-be identified assailants.
The victim was murdered in North Bank suburb of Makurdi, the state capital.
Onoh was said to have been taken hostage on Tuesday evening by unknown persons who had requested her retail products to be delivered to them.
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 area of Makurdi.
Speaking to journalists in Makurdi on Thursday, mother of the deceased, Grace Onuh, a widow with three children, and native of Obollo Afor, Enugu State, 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 bereaved mother, who lives behind NUJ Secretariat, said although the trade was strictly online, her daughter was involved in home delivery.
The mother disclosed that she lost her husband twelve years ago, adding that her daughter had been struggling to send herself to the university through the little business
She said that Joy was called by an unknown customer on Tuesday evening, to deliver some items at North Bank area of the town and that every effort thereafter to reach her daughter, who never stayed out late, 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 North Bank.
“I waited, but she never came back. I called her line and it was busy all the time. I made frantic efforts to call her phone but someone busied it. Her sister, Cynthia, called and this time it went through but she cried and asked her sister to send her bank details.
“She left the house at about 5pm and by 9pm I went to report the matter to police but they asked me to come back the next day. The next day, they told me to wait till after 24 hours only to hear by 5pm that her body was found at Federal Low Cost in North Bank,” the woman said amid sobs.
Confirming the incident, the Benue State Police Command spokesperson, DSP Catherine Anene, said a case of a missing young lady was reported and and a search was conducted.
Anene added that on October 20, Joy’s corpse was discovered at about 7am in a bush at Federal Low Cost Housing., North Bank.
“Investigation is ongoing to ascertain the cause of her death,” Anene said.