GISTS DIRECT

A Kerosene explosion yesterday killed a young lady identified as Miss Ifeoma Nwofe and injured her two siblings at their parent’s residence in Azuiyiokwu, Abakaliki, Ebonyi State. Reports say the victim, who suffered severe burns all over her body, could not receive treatment at the Federal Teaching Hospital, Abakaliki, where she was rushed to because of the ongoing doctors’ strike. Ifeoma later died at a private hospital due to lack of prompt medical attention. The deceased’s siblings, Linda 8, and Chiemerie, 10 are still in critical condition. Reports say the explosion occurred as Ifeoma was trying to light the family’s lantern after electric power cut. This development has raised suspicion that the kerosene might have been adulterated. Narrating his ordeal, father of the victims, Mr. Simeon Nwofe, said that Ifeoma returned home to observe her school’s midterm break. “After hugging her younger ones, she decided to put on the lantern in the house and then the incident occurred,” he sa...

Allegedly gang-r*ped by three boys, an 18-year-old girl has committed suicide at her residence in Amarata, a suburb of Yenagoa, the Bayelsa State capital. The deceased, simply identified as Janet, was a native of Oduali in Abua/Odua Local Government Area of Rivers State. According to reports, she was gang-r*ped at gunpoint by the boys, who forced her into an uncompleted building last week, while she was running an errand for her elder sister. “The girl was sad and devastated after the incident. After she narrated her experience, her sister’s husband, who is a pastor, asked her to describe any of her attackers. She described one of them. “The boy was traced to his house, but he had absconded. The pastor counselled her and promised to pursue the matter to a logical conclusion,” a source said, but did not say if the matter was reported to the police or if the girl was taken to a hospital after the incident. The psychological trauma that comes with r*pe was apparently too much for the vict...