By Alice Festus, Abuja

Police detectives in Federal Capital Territory, Abuja,are working round the clock to fish out a group of men that attacked and brutalized a widow, Ufoma Ofondu, 49, at her residence, recently.  The mother of four narrowly escaped death on Thursday, September 26, 2013, after four armed men jumped into their compound in the midnight to steal their generator.  They fled after alarm was raised only to invade the compound the next day and inflicted severe injuries on the widow with matchet.  She was saved by quick intervention of the police who were alerted by her neighbours when the invaders attacked her with dangerous weapons.

The badly battered woman who became a widow in the year 2000 went through harrowing experience trying to make ends meet, and ensure that her children went to school by baking cakes  and  distributing to retailers within Kubwa environs.  She managed to put a small structure by the foot of a mountain in Kubwa where she, her children and a kid sister laid their heads every night.

Little did Mrs Ofondu who hails from Idemili in Anambra State know that danger was locking around her small abode when four men whose identities are yet to be known jumped over the fence of her small abode, broke in without invitation and unleashed terror on her and her household.

•The widow batted (Inset when the going was good)Her story

My 19 year-old first son who lives with my aunt, came to spend some days with me on September 24, 2013. He saw that the whole house was dark, he persuaded me to connect it  and he helped with wiring the house because he was not pleased that we had no light.  We normally put on the generator till around 10pm before we put it off and retire for the night.

The  attack

Around 4 a.m on that day, I overheard my son asking someone ‘what are you doing there?’ And before we knew what was happening, some men jumped over our fence trying to steal the small generator while they kept flashing torchlight on my face. I quickly bent my face to the ground until I saw them carrying the generator. That was when I raised alarm.

At that point, the men quickly dropped the generator. They didn’t stop at that, they then rushed towards me and hit me with one of the knives they had on and left. I shivered with fear throughout that night.  I asked my son how he managed to see those people? He explained that he was sleeping and heard the noise of things falling on the floor in the compound. He  opened his eyes, opened the door to check what was happening and behold he saw four men in the compound trying to steal.

The butchering

Few days after the incident, I and my kid sister living with me were playing ludo game in the compound that fateful night.   Although I was scared and worried about the previous experience and hoping that those guys would not come back again hence we were playing the ludo to keep vigil and buy time till 12 mid night. Just when we decided to relax a while at about 11pm, we saw someone flashing torchlight on us and instantly, my sister told me that those people had come again.

We became confused and didn’t know what next to do. Before we knew it, the four men pulled down the entrance door as there is no burglary.  They entered the house and pounced on me. They didn’t ask me for anything. They just started matchetting me. They just started cutting me, even when l used my left hand to protect my face, they still did not stop. They matchetted my hand and my face.

My children were in the other room sleeping. The men opened their room, pushed my sister into the room and came back for me as they continued to cut me all over.  When it dawned on me that the men were out to kill me even with blood gushing out from every part of my body, they still did not stop. At a point, I had to pretend to be dead by falling on the floor lifeless.

They thought l was dead, they then rushed out. I quickly managed to stand up and rushed to the room where my children and my sister were as they had been calling on me all the period the men were cutting me. I locked the door and burglary. My children’s room has burglary.

We were all in that room when l heard foot-steps again. The men came back but this time, they made away with all the money l had and some property including my cloths and my children’s school bags that were in the other room, they made away with everything.

The arrival of  Police

After a while that same night, we saw another flash. We thought they had come again but this time it was the Police.  When we realised they were police because of the blaring of siren, we came out of the house but we didn’t know who called the police.  It was much later that we got to know that people who heard our voices called the police. The people said they had to call the police because of the unusual noise coming out from our house.  The Police quickly rushed me to Kubwa General Hospital where they stitched the various cuts on my face and body before they admitted me.