6th October, 2012
The remains of the late Cynthia Osokogu, the Facebook tragic girl, were committed to earth on Friday at Owa Ekei, Agbor, Delta.
The body conveyed in a Volvo ambulance with registration number LY 616 EKY, arrived at her father’s compound at Agbor at 2.55 p.m.
Her remains were interred in the compound at 3.55 p.m. after a brief Christian ceremony conducted by Rev. Fr. Leonard Biachi, the Parish Priest of Saint Dominic’s Catholic Church, Boji Boji, Owa.
The first attempt to bury her on 7 September was aborted when the police refused to release her body on grounds that they had not concluded autopsy on it.
But a funeral mass scheduled for the day was conducted and persons who had arrived for the burial attended the mass and later commiserated with the family.
Guests at the aborted burial included Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan of Delta, Senator Ifeanyi Okowa, Dr Festus Okubor, Chief of Staff, Government House, Asaba and top military personnel and traditional chiefs in the area.
Speaking to newsmen at the rescheduled burial Friday, occasion, the father of the deceased, Retired Major General Frank Osokogu said that he was impressed with the way the investigation and court process of his late daughter were handled.
He commended the police for what he described as “wonderful job so far’’, and urged the force to always rise to occasions that needed its professionalism in order to make the force a true friend of the public.
He said that the death of Cynthia, who would have been 24 years in November, had created a big vacuum in his family but stated that the family had no choice than bear the loss.
“Life must go on because what you cannot change, you will accept.’’
He expressed confidence in Nigeria’s judiciary, saying that he was sure justice would be done in the case of his daughter’s death.
He commended the media for their support and appealed for demonstration of the same zeal in covering the court proceedings on the case.
The late Cynthia was found dead in a hotel room in Lagos on July 26, after she was declared missing by her family three days earlier. She was allegedly killed by her assailants on July 22.
Four suspects, including two university undergraduates, were later arrested in connection with the incident and the case had been taken to court.
The four suspects, according to police investigators had lured Cynthia, through their Facebook interactions, to a hotel in Lagos,where they raped and killed her.
Until her death, Cynthia was a post-graduate student at the Nassarawa State University, Keffi, where she obtained her first degree.
With reports from NAN