By Kayode Sanni-Arewa
Forty-seven-year-old nurse, Ejezie Udochukwu, opens up to IKENNA OBIANERI about the heavy pain of losing his three children under mysterious and shocking circumstances in Nnewichi, Nnewi North Local Government Area of Anambra State
Recently, reports went viral about the killing of your three children. How did it happen?
I am from Umuokanam Umucheke, Umueze-Uga in Aguata Local Government Area of Anambra State. I am 47 years old and a nurse by profession. I reside in Edo State, while my wife and children live in Nnewi, Anambra State, but I visit them regularly.
On February 1, 2025, my wife went for an official assignment and left our children at home, as usual, because it was not a school day. She gave them instructions as she always did. However, when she returned at about 5 pm, she noticed that the doors were wide open, unlike before.
Why was the door open?
She was expecting her children to greet and hug her, but she didn’t hear any voices or see any of them. She went to the kitchen to check if the food she had left for them had been eaten, but the food was still there. She began wondering where the children had gone.
My first daughter is an altar server, and every Saturday, she goes for rehearsals. My second daughter attends catechism for her first holy communion, and the youngest one, they can’t keep him at home, so he is usually taken along. But on that day, they didn’t go anywhere, and nobody knew where they were.
What happened thereafter?
At first, my wife didn’t suspect anything, as she came back from her assignment tired and needed to eat.
While she was eating, I called and asked if she had seen the children. She said ‘no’. I asked her how she could comfortably eat without knowing where our children were. She asked me to allow her to eat first, and I agreed. After eating, she went to the church that the children attended. I even told her that if she found them, she should discipline them, not knowing that my children had already been killed and stuffed inside the freezer.
How old were the children?
My first daughter, Chikaima, was nine years old; Chimdirim David, my son, was five; and Chimziterem Dominica, my second daughter, was eight years old. They were the only ones at home when the incident occurred.
How long have you lived in the compound?
We live in a two-room apartment behind the main building. There are two separate one-room apartments occupied by medical students, and we have been living in this compound for five years. We are the only family living there, along with two medical students.
What time did your wife start searching for the children before discovering their bodies in the freezer?
She started calling people whom she thought my children might have visited, though they were not the visiting type. Every person she called said they had not visited them.