His crime leaves family, friends, and neighbours reeling with shock and disbelief because the victim was his six-year-old daughter and his only child who lost her mother exactly two years ago.
Love and tragedies
The life of Thompson Agena, 47, a native of Awe Local Government Area of Nasarawa State, is characterized by tribulation and tragedies.
Agena, who earns his livelihood as a carpenter since he completed his secondary education in Government Science Secondary School Lafia in 1988, married his wife, Cecilia, a native of Obi Local Government Area of the state in 2005 and the couple had their first child, a daughter named Mercy in 2011.
Thereafter, they had a difficulty conceiving a second child until 2016 when Cecilia took in and eventually died shortly after giving birth.
A repentant Thompson Agena narrated to Saturday Sun how he lost his wife to maternal mortality on April 20, 2016. His wife’s second pregnancy was a few days overdue when he took her to the General Hospital in Lafia to be induced and he went back home to make plans for to welcome back the mother and the new child. “I got one of my younger sisters to help her at home when she returns back, and I painted the house in bright colours. I did all I could to make sure that it was comfortable for my wife and our new baby,” he recounted.
At the hospital, Cecilia had a prolonged labour, finally giving birth to a 4.6kg baby boy, but she continued bleeding, suffering a postpartum hemorrhage, and at 1:23 am, had died of blood loss.
According to him, the hospital was out of stock of the drugs needed to stop his wife’s bleeding. “So I went out to buy them. Nobody told me why she died,” he said.
While he had contemplated taking legal action against the hospital for negligence, he was discouraged by the futility of such action taken by some individuals in the past.
“I decided to leave it to God because nothing I do will bring her back,” he said.
A week later, another tragedy struck. The baby boy died and was buried immediately in the village.
While the circumstance leading to the death of his wife and his newborn child was beyond his control, he, however, had no excuse for indulging in the self-inflicted calamity of murdering a child.
The impossible ‘marriage condition’
A year after his wife’s demise, Agena enrolled for a part-time diploma programme at the Nasarawa State Polytechnic where he met Joy Orkuma, a native of Guma Local Government Area, Benue State. The pair fell in love, and soon after, she became pregnant.
Agena was as passionate about his newfound love as to declare his willingness to do anything in order to get her committed to marriage. Like Herodias’ daughter who asked for “the head of John the Baptizer”, Orkuma asked for the elimination of his six-year-old daughter.
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