It is like the biblical story of Rachael crying for her dead children and refusing to be comforted. The family members of Mr. John Ndubuaku, who died on Saturday from a gunshot from a policeman attached to the son of Abia State governor, Mr. Chinedu Orji, are still weeping.

At the one-storey family house of the Ndubuakus on St Finbar’s, by Warri Street, Umuahia, sympathisers have kept streaming in to sympathise with the aged mother they all addressed as “Deaconess” or “Mama John”.

The woman, just gesticulating, was too shocked to utter much. She simply said that those who killed John did not kill him but her.

The deceased was the last born of her 13 pregnancies.

When this reporter sought to speak to her on her feelings, a family member said she was not in the mood to talk: “You can see that we are in mourning mood and cannot bring ourselves together to talk to anybody. Put yourself in our shoes; how can we talk to the press under this circumstance? This was somebody who left here healthy on Saturday and we just heard that he has been shot dead, not even wounded. Our heart is too heavy.

“We have been hearing too many stories and we are waiting to hear what actually happened.”

The widow was also surrounded by sympathisers and could not speak to anybody. She was still dazed by the sudden death of her husband.

•Text courtesy LEADERSHIP. Photo shows Chinedu Orji and wife.