By PRECIOUS IGBONWELUNDU

A 19-year-old girl, Margaret Ikumu, whose family raised the alarm over her alleged death and secret burial by friends, has told the police she faked it to escape financial pressures from her mother.

Ikumu, a Benue native working as a domestic help for an Igbo family in Ajah, Lagos created controversy a fortnight ago after news of her death and authorisation to her friends Marvellous Mary and Nneka Buddy to bury her body without her family’s approval.

Unknown to her employer and family, Ikumu created two fake Facebook accounts, using her employer’s daughter, Dr. Nemechi Ugorji’s pictures.

She also went ahead to send her employer’s late wife’s body, which she snapped at the hospital to her family through the fake accounts as her remains.

Unfortunately for her, her employers read about her supposed death last week and contacted The Nation to reveal Ikumu was alive.

They said she was in their home and were shocked at her action especially as she used Dr. Ugorji’s picture without her consent.

Giving that Ikumu’s family had through one Tony Iji petitioned the Police Commissoner (CP) Hakeem Odumosu and subsequently posted Dr. Ugorji’s picture on social media as the said Marvellous Mary, the girl’s employers immediately contacted the police and handed Ikumu over for investigation.

During interrogation, Ikumu told detectives that she was tired of her family constantly calling to request for money from her and wanted them to think she was dead so she could leave her life.

It was learnt that the teenager’s choice of Dr. Ugorji’s picture for her action was not unconnected to the latter’s admonitions after discovering Ikumu was making some misguided decisions.

“She has lived with us since October last year. We got her through an agency and the agent had our contact. We are surprised and embarrassed that this could happen. How can this small girl be in the house with us and then fake her death?

“She went ahead to use Nemechi’s picture and then our mother’s body. It is obvious she had planned this for some time now. I think she chose to implicate Nemechi because Nene scolded her one time she went through her phone and discovered she was out of line.

“Nemechi told her she was too young for that kind of life and that she should not destroy her future. She also saw that Margaret sent a message to a guy that she was bleeding from the nose which was a lie.

“So, Nemechi warned her to retrace her steps and start being a good girl. That ordinarily should not be an issue but I guess it was for Margaret,” said a member of the employer’s family.

Ikumu’s employers first reported the case at Ajah Police Station before they were all moved to the command headquarters in Ikeja where Iji’s petition was being investigated.

Making clarifications, police spokesman Bala Elkana said Ikumu confessed to have masterminded and executed the plots in order to get her family off her back.

She told the police she was angry that her mother and uncles could not send her to school after the death of her father and so, she was working as a maid to save money and return to school.

“In her statement, she confessed to have created the Facebook account and posted her obituary with intent to keep her family away from her. That her mother was putting financial pressure on her, constantly demanding that she send money to her.

“The girl is apparently bitter with her mother and uncles over their inability to sponsor her education after the death of her father. Her sojourn to Lagos is to work, save some money and return to school.

“She admitted using her employer’s daughter’s photograph Dr Nimechi Ugorji (without her knowledge) in the fictitious Facebook account she created, as profile picture.

“After posting the obituary notice on the account, her uncle downloaded the profile picture and reposted, calling on members of the public who know the person on the photograph to report to the nearest Police Station. Investigation is ongoing,” said Elkana in a statement on Sunday.

•Sourced from The Nation.