Date Rape gone horribly wrong.

Research in Motion in the last decade has made so much profit with its Blackberry product line. Completely revolutionizing the instant messaging service, It took Corporations like Apple, Microsoft and the makers of the Whattsapp application a while to catch up. 

The Blackberry messaging service meant a lot to many people. It provided a very easy way to communicate without incurring crazy charges, it played a pivotal role in the Arab spring up rising and the Nigerian fuel subsidy saga. It is a formidable method via which information can be spread efficiently. 

While it proves to be a source of information for some, for others it proved to be a very different tool. Like everything good it could be thwarted to an evil end.

A resident of Abuja Nigeria hooked up with a virtual friend via Blackberry chat and set up a meet date. A meet date  which was for the 21st of July proved to be her ruin when it all went horribly wrong. 

Miss Cynthia Osokogu 24, the Daughter of Retired Nigerian Major General Frank Osokogu was lured by 33 year old Nwabuzor Okumo and his Cousin 23 year old Ezekiel Odera to her death. 

Cynthia Osokogu

She arrived in Lagos and met Nwabuzor Okumo at the airport they proceeded to a hotel in FESTAC where  her virtual friend now in the physical sought to rob her. He proceeded to drug and rape her repeatedly for 12 hours and then murdered her in cold blood. 

Although he did claim his intent was not to cause her death, telling police he had actually drugged and raped unsuspecting ladies on 3 or 4 different occasions and it had never resulted in the death of any of his victims. 

He admitted purchasing four bottles of Ribenna and had spiked them up with Reflon ( this could be a drug called Flunitrazepam also known as Rohypnol nicknamed Roofies) Which is a Benzodiazipines one of the two main sleeping agents used to battle Insomnia. 

Though a sizeable quantity was administered, he claimed it did not have the desired effect and his victim Cynthia put up a fight resulting in her being tied up. 

Failing to get any sizeable amount of cash out of her and aided by his cousin he beat her up, chained her and left her. Though Okumo claimed they left her alive in the hotel room, staff at the hotel have indicated differently. They said an anonymous caller had called up saying; go and get the dead body of a bastard from your room. Which led to them finding Cynthia's body.

Ezekiel Odera and Nwabuzo Okumo

Ezekiel fled to Anambra State in Eastern Nigeria but was traced there by the police aided by his girlfriend and he in turn helped them trace Okumo who lived in FESTAC back in Lagos.

This is a heart wrenching story and bears all the hallmarks of barbarism, greed and sheer stupidity. 

Nwabuzor Okumo and Ezekiel Odera are to be charged to court shortly to answer counts of Robbery, GBH, Kidnapping,  Rape and Murder. 

Though she set out to do some shopping for her boutique and to meet a couple of new friends it ended in the worst possible way imaginable. 

This is not the first I have heard of date rape in sub-saharan Africa, but it is one of the most petrifying considering the victim, location and the fatal twist to the story.