If Favour Aruwa Habibatu, a 500-level law student at the University of Port Harcourt, Rivers State, had known she was embarking on a journey of no return from Choba, Rivers State, she probably would have cancelled it. She may have had a premonition of what awaited her at her boyfriend’s place but ignored the warning signs.
Those who knew her closely said they saw her in Choba that Tuesday before she boarded a vehicle to Warri, Delta State, to visit her boyfriend, Michael Ade. In Warri, neighbours along Ayidi Street in the Edgeba area of the oil-rich city recalled seeing her that Tuesday evening buying food ingredients. Some of them, who spoke off-camera, said Favour and Michael were often seen together in his Lexus SUV.
‘They were a regular sight in his jeep. They were clearly in a serious relationship. She was always visiting him’, they said.
But something strange happened in Michael’s apartment that Tuesday night. The landlord of the compound heard the girl screaming loudly for help. He quickly contacted the community youths and also called the police.
At the same time, he ran out to block Michael’s SUV with his own vehicle.
Michael later came out of his apartment, insisting the landlord should move his car because he had an emergency and needed to drive out. But the landlord and the youths, who had already arrived before the police, demanded that he lead them into his apartment to explain why his girlfriend was screaming.
He had no choice but to comply.
To their shock, they found his girlfriend lying in a pool of blood on the floor.
Saturday Vanguard gathered that Michael allegedly stabbed her multiple times before she died. When the police arrived, they arrested him and took the deceased’s remains to the morgue. Neighbours speculated that the young man murdered her for ritual purposes.
