Facts have emerged about how a former Miss Motor Show Nigeria, Miss Barbara Ana, was murdered in her house in Gwarinpa, Abuja July 29, 2011.
The deceased who was an Efik from Cross River state, had won the Miss Nigeria zonal competition for the Southern Zone, in the early 1980’s.
But a friend of the deceased who spoke with our reporter under anonymity, said the person who murdered the ex-beauty queen must be someone who knew her very well and visited her regularly.
She added that the deceased had returned from work to meet the young man who went on errands for her waiting outside and they went into the house together.
Before the unfortunate incident, another friend of the deceased had called to say that he was coming to see her at about 8.30 pm but later called back to say he had a flat tyre and would be a little late.
But the visitor got to her house at about 9pm and found her corpse in a pool of blood along the corridor, in her apartment while he alerted the police.
Contrary to an earlier report, the deceased was not beheaded as her throat was slit with a kitchen knife found beside her body.
The deceased’s friend said, “When he came in and saw her like that, he ran out and called the police who came to the scene. Barbara was cooking before she was murdered and by the time the police got to her place, the chicken she had on the fire was even burning and they were the ones who turned off the gas otherwise the whole house would even have been burnt.
The deceased’s friend said that Barbara was living in the house alone, adding there was no security man at the place as the one who worked there had quit and got another job three houses away.
She added that Barbara’s former security man told them that he was standing by the gate of the house where he was working and saw the young man who had been waiting for Barbara outside, run out of her house and into an oncoming tricycle, Keke NAPEP, and they zoomed off.
The friend also told LEADERSHIP that Barbara had received her salary the day she was murdered, claiming that she had gone to the bank earlier that day to withdraw the entire money when the police came to the crime scene, her bag was found outside her room, with no money in it. It had been ransacked and every valuable thing in it had been removed.
Our source further said that someone else had seen Barbara on the evening she was killed, strolling down the street with a young man, described as tall and dark, with a Mohawk hairdo, while the said man had dark sunshades on.
She lamented that one week after the crime, the police were yet to make any arrests, a situation which prompted the deceased’s family to seek for the transfer of the case from Gwarinpa Police Station to the FCT Police Command, Garki.
When asked what kind of person Barbara was, our source described her as an easy going and fun-loving person, saying that the deceased made friends easily and rarely got into trouble with anyone.
“Barbara was full of life and very social. She was the outgoing type but she was not troublesome at all. She just loved to live a good life,” our source added.
She, however, called on the police to step up their investigation and bring the culprit to justice.
The late Barbara Ana, was a member of many social organisations, including Akwa Cross Women Association, Cross River State Forum Abuja and Efik Community Abuja, and was actively involved in the activities of the associations.
The deceased’s body has been deposited at the Wuse General Hospital Mortuary.
But the police are yet to confirm the incident, as the FCT police public relations officer, Jimoh Moshood, told our correspondent who called him to confirm the incident that he would get back to her on the matter.
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