By Muhammed Danjuma Ogwu
In the farming town of Agyaragu, Obi Local Government Area of Nasarawa State, five young girls—aged 3 to 7—were found lifeless in an abandoned car on Sunday. What began as a peaceful day ended in horror for the mothers who are now left only with memories, grief, and unanswered questions.
“I fed them, I watched them play, and I told them not to leave the compound,” said Mrs. Ifeoma Nnaji, clutching the dresses her daughters had worn that morning. “They asked if they could go outside, and I said okay. That was the last thing I said to them. That was the last time I saw them alive.”
Her daughters, 7-year-old Nmesoma and 3-year-old Chidima, had wandered off with friends. Hours later, after a frantic search, their bodies were found—alongside three other girls—inside a long-abandoned vehicle in their compound. All five had suffocated.
Mrs. Nnaji’s voice breaks as she speaks. She had lost her husband just seven months earlier. “My husband died quietly in his sleep. I buried him and carried on—for my girls. Now I will bury them, too. I have nothing left. I have no one to call my own.”
The vehicle, she said, had always been shut. “It had been sitting there for years. I don’t know how they got inside. They’d never played in or around it before.”
By 1 p.m., panic had begun to spread. Parents were shouting, neighbors were searching, and motorbikes sped through the community looking for the girls. Some feared kidnapping. Others hoped they were asleep somewhere. No one imagined what they would find.
“It was a neighbor who suggested checking the old car,” Mrs. Nnaji recalled. “When they opened it, we saw our children inside. All of them. Not one survived.”
For 58-year-old Mrs. Bridget Iormagh, her granddaughter, Eunice Shapera—called Bose at home—was not just a child. “She was my reason to smile,” she said.
Having lost her own children, Mrs. Iormagh was raising Bose alone. “She was my last joy. Always sitting near my doorstep. She didn’t like to go far because of the dogs in the compound. But that day… she went with the others.”
She had stepped out briefly to buy salt. When she returned, Bose was missing. “We searched the whole area. Then someone screamed. ‘They’re in the car!’ And just like that, my world ended.”
She fell silent, looking away. “I buried my children. Now I’ll bury her.”
All five victims—Nmesoma, Chidima, Eunice, Kamsi Onah, and Soma Onah—were buried within hours. Their small graves now line a quiet stretch of the town’s cemetery, marked with flowers and children’s toys.
Deputy Governor Dr. Emmanuel Akabe visited the grieving families, offering prayers and support. “This is a tragedy beyond words,” he said. “We mourn with you, and we will not forget.”
The police have launched an investigation. According to SP Ramhan Nansel, the vehicle belonged to one Mr. Abu Agyeme and had been parked unused for years. The cause of death was confirmed as suffocation.
“We urge all families to secure such vehicles and monitor their children closely,” he said.
“We are broken,” said Samuel Akala, a local youth leader. “This kind of pain will not leave us quickly. We’ve lost our daughters, our future.”
For now, the mothers of Agyaragu are left to mourn—in silence, in prayers, and in memories of laughter that once filled their compound.