- . . . Iniubong is dead today because a lot of people didn’t do their jobs.
This past week, a whole nation has been gripped by cold shivers following the tragic murder of Iniubong Umoren, an indigene of Akwa Ibom State who was killed by a serial rapist who had lured her to her death on the pretext of a phoney job interview.
EKO HOT BLOG reported earlier how Iniubong was hideously murdered in the most horrifying manner after she was tricked into captivity in the guise of a job interview somewhere on the outskirts of Uyo, the Akwa Ibom State capital.
Like many victims of circumstance in the ‘viral age’ that we live in today, Iniubong Umoren has, posthumously received much sympathy and solicitude after an alarm was raised that she might be entrapped in grave danger following suspicions that she’d fallen victim to a job scam, down to when the tragic news broke that the 26-year old had been gruesomely murdered by one Uduak Akpan, in collusion with his confederates.
Iniubong’s gruesome murder, put succinctly, adequately encapsulates the moral bankruptcy of today’s society. Beyond that, it is an accentuation of a broken system which has gradually been nursed to become the norm; a new norm which has consequently created a dysfunctional society where we have no option but to simply “survive.”
On Sunday, May 2, 2021, Uduak Umoh, a close friend of Iniubong Umoren who had led the public outcry after the job-seeker went missing on Thursday, April 29, 2021, narrated the circumstances that led to her friend’s untimely demise; and, a critical appraisal of these circumstances aptly underscores the broken system we refer to as our society.
During her chat with TVC, Miss Umoh had alleged that they had both decided to belly up to the bar and find gainful employment after waiting for an NYSC mobilization which was taking longer than expected to materialize, and this takes us to the first manifestation of a misnomer which played an enormous role in Iniubong’s ultimate tragedy.
The third decade of an average person’s life, without a shred of doubt, is the most important one. It is usually the decade of vicissitudes. The decade where some of the most critical and crucial decisions of a person’s life are usually made. Incidentally, in today’s world where education has become indispensable for a vast number of reasons, it is usually the decade that most young people fulfill the platitude of acquiring tertiary education; and, for Iniubong, the story was no different.
But then, as important as this phase of a young person’s life is, the Nigerian education system, particularly the tertiary rung is designed such that it always characteristically consumes more time than necessary due to lethargic and atavistic practices which simply has no regard for global best practices in education. Unfortunately for Iniubong, the smart decision to not wait around until she was duly mobilized to serve her country was met with disastrous consequences.
There is no gainsaying that the most pivotal piece in the Iniubong Umoren puzzle, as narrated by her friend during the interview with TVC is the attitude of the men of the Nigeria Police Force after an alarm was raised that the job-seeker might be in trouble. According to Uduak, after a complaint had been lodged at a local police division in Uyo, the officers on duty had dismissed the report flippantly on the ground that a person could not be deemed missing or in danger unless such a person has been incommunicado for at least 24 hours.
READ ALSO: Angry Youths Destroy Family House Of Suspected Killer Of Uyo Job-Seeker
But Iniubong was not missing, she was in grave danger, a fact which was duly communicated to men of the Nigerian Police, yet ignored. What makes it even more repulsive is the fact that even when the Police had wasted a whole day which would have made a big difference on procedure, for some reason they refused to mobilize the divisional truck for transportation but rather asked the complainants to raise funds and hire a truck. Ridiculous!
Furthermore, the fact that a psychopathic, serial rapist beat everyone else to the punch of moving to help Iniubong get a job is a failure we as a society we must collectively bear. Uduak Akpan was not necessarily the first to hear Iniubong’s cry for help, but was able to lure her to her premature death because someone, somewhere, who had the means to reward her determination and tenacity had failed to act, fine margins which has led to this national tragedy.
Once again, another woman in her prime has paid the ultimate price, not out of any fault of her own, but merely because she was intensely committed to becoming a productive member of society. Therefore, beyond the social media hashtags and the platitudes of urging justice for Iniubong, we will be better served as a society when we wipe the underbelly of this dysfunctional society that led to her death by taking responsibility in our different spheres of endeavours, because, Iniubong is dead today simply because a lot of people didn’t do their jobs.
For Iniubong, though snatched by premature death from an auspicious destiny, will forever be etched on the right side of history, as echoed in the words of the great Theodore Roosevelt, “Far better is it to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure… than to rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy nor suffer much, because they live in a gray twilight that knows not victory nor defeat.”
Discover more from EkoHotBlog
Subscribe to get the latest posts to your email.
Advertise or Publish a Story on EkoHot Blog:
Kindly contact us at [email protected]. Breaking stories should be sent to the above email and substantiated with pictorial evidence.
Citizen journalists will receive a token as data incentive.
Call or Whatsapp: 0803 561 7233, 0703 414 5611