10 Adetsav family bloodbath: One week after, neighbours desert homes
Neighbours have fled from the compound where Rachael Adetsav is alleged to have killed her husband, their three children and then herself in Makurdi High Level, Benue.
Two padlocks now pin the compound shut; it is now a spectacle.
the incident occurred on Friday November 2 in the couple’s rented onebedroom apartment, opposite NKST Church on Vandekiya Street in High Level.
But, the dust raised as a result of the incident has not settled. Many reactions continue to come during the past seven days.
The compound comprises three blocks, each with four flats, and three single-room apartments. Its occupants have abandoned their homes to relocate to other parts of town after the incident. The reading is to save themselves the trauma of recalling the tragic incident by continue to live in the same house.
So far, there has been no development to counter the running narrative: that Rachael killed her familyhusband Nicholas Adetsav, three children: Ngwuavese, 7, Evelyn, 5, and Joshua, 3-and then herself.
Police confirmed the incident last week and said investigations ongoing.
Benue police spokesman Moses Joel Yamusays autopsy report is awaited.
Bereaved survivors of the Adetsav’s have gone mute over the incident, emphasising a need for police to conclude their findings.
Others have taken on aggressive attitude toward journalists or anyone asking questions.
Mimi Adetsav, a younger brother of the late husband, has said he would comment at a later date only after police have completed their investigations.
Other hostile relatives chased journalists. In one instance, they attempted to lynch the correspondents Rose Ejmebi of the Sun and John Charles of the Punch who had had approached the bereaved families for follow up reports.
Nigerian Union of Journalists in Benue State has condemned the attack ont he journalists and appealed to the public to cooperate with journalists doing their legitimate duties.
The union also frowned at the high level of domestic violence in the state with reference to the recent murder of the Adetsavs’ as it called on the police and other security agencies in the state to ensure adequate protection of media practitioners in carrying out their duties without were still harassment.
Yamu had earlier said preliminary investigation indicated that the deceased woman smashed the glass of their vehicle parked in front of their house before her husband was called home by neighbours and when he returned, thereafter their door was shut.
Yamu said the police broke into the house on arrival to find the three children’s throats slit, the husband lying dead and frothing at the mouth while the woman was also dead and appeared to have stabbed herself with the knife still in her hand.
He had upon completion of the police findings, the command would be able to give conclusive details of who killed whom.
Meanwhile, the tragic incident formed major discourse in public places during the week with some young men insisting they would shift their wedding dates to get to know their partners better while other men urged civil-society organizations to protest violence against men.
Other sympathizers took to the dead man’s Facebook page to bare their minds on his tragic event.
One of them, Terfa Alagh, had summed it this way, “When we planned to register our displeasure before government over the uncertainty and delay that surrounded the immediate payment of our salaries as government had announced, like every other day, you were part of the activism. On the day of that protest, which was last Thursday, the sad news of George Tsav’s departure from this earth, was one ugly incident that had aggravated our anger, knowing that if he had received his salary and afforded his BP medication, the claws of death would have spared him.
‘We lamented George Tsav’s death together, without hindsight that your brutal end would beckon in a matter of two days. You had a beast for a wife but did not want to receive counsel from not even your best of friends, nor did you from family members, who both kept a distance as any attempt to meddle met a stiff resistance from you. “Words cannot describe how the brutal end of those beautiful girls and boy makes me feel since news of the sad incident reached me last night. I recollect how those girls connected with me the very first day I was at your service to help with school run while a sojourn at the SCOAN in Lagos, Nigeria, kept you away from home for a week.
“I would have felt better if I never had cause to meet and know you and your family, but such remains a wishful thought. May God forgive your silence that has led to the brutal end of your harmless beautiful kids. Like Ochanya, the world did not deserve your two girls and boy. Rest in Peace, Adetsav Nicholas as I pray that God’s mercy will endure in your case.”