“She Knelt to Pray for Our Marriage – Then I Shot Her”: How a Bridegroom Killed His NSCDC Fiancée 11 Days to Wedding

“She Knelt to Pray for Our Marriage – Then I Shot Her”: How a Bridegroom Killed His NSCDC Fiancée 11 Days to Wedding.

The sad story of NSCDC officer who was killed by her fiancé in 2019.

The dusty roads of Otukpo in Benue State have seen many weddings. December is usually a time for celebration, with families gathering under the cold harmattan sky to dance, eat, and join two people together. But in December 2019, something happened that the people of Otukpo still talk about in low voices.

A young woman named Josephine Cynthia Inalegwu Onche was preparing for the happiest days of her life. She was an officer with the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC). Her father was a well-known former Mayor of Otukpo. Everything was set for her wedding on December 28 and 29, 2019. Invitations had gone out. Money had been paid to fabric sellers. A bus had even been hired to carry guests to the venue.

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But the man she had loved for seven years, 54-year-old Christopher Akpan, had other plans.

The Trap Before the Wedding

Just eleven days before the church ceremony, Akpan called his bride-to-be. He asked her to come to Akwa Ibom State for a final family discussion. Josephine packed her bag and left. She never came back.

For a while, nobody knew where she had gone. Her phone went silent. The wedding planning stopped. Her family waited five days before her brother called Akpan in panic. Akpan calmly told him he had no idea where Josephine was. He even acted like a worried groom when the wedding date came and went with no bride.

But behind that calm face was a man who had already made up his mind.

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What the Native Doctor Told Police

It took the police Intelligence Response Team (IRT) eighteen months to untangle this case. The turning point came when a 67-year-old herbalist named Rafiu Afolabi was caught in Abeokuta, Ogun State, where he had run to hide.

Under questioning, Afolabi told detectives everything.

According to his confession, Akpan had come to him asking for help with a money ritual. He wanted to become very rich, very fast. The herbalist said Akpan had done something similar with his late first wife, which gave him just enough money to build one house. But that was not enough anymore. Akpan wanted to enter a different level of wealth, and he had chosen Josephine as the sacrifice.

Afolabi said Akpan promised to pay him ₦5 million from the bride’s savings. And what savings they were. Over the course of their relationship, Josephine had handed over ₦14 million of her own money to Akpan. Her lifetime savings. She trusted him completely.

On the evening of December 19, 2019, Akpan drove Josephine into a thick forest in Obi Local Government Area of Benue State. He carried a calabash with a python, a pigeon, and some native soap.

He told her they needed to perform a special prayer to protect their marriage. He said he was afraid the same bad luck that took his first wife might come for her too. Josephine, who loved him and trusted his words, agreed.

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“She thought it was a sacrifice to protect her upcoming marriage,” the herbalist later told reporters while pointing at Akpan. “So she knelt down willingly in the forest. But her fiancé brought out a gun and shot her in the back.”

As she fell, Akpan collected her blood in the calabash. He then opened her handbag and took ₦700,000 in cash, her ATM cards, and her work ID card. After that, he dug a shallow grave in the muddy ground, buried her body, and walked away.

He later gave the herbalist only ₦50,000 instead of the promised ₦5 million and fled the state.

How the Body Was Found

For eighteen months, the case remained unsolved. Then a local motorcycle rider, who had seen strange movements in that forest on the night of December 19, gathered the courage to speak up. He secretly told Josephine’s family what he had seen.

On May 27, 2021, police took the handcuffed herbalist back to the forest. He pointed to the exact spot. After digging, they found what was left of Josephine Cynthia Inalegwu Onche. She had spent two rainy seasons buried in the dirt.

On June 16, 2021, Christopher Akpan was paraded at the Force Headquarters in Abuja. Even with all the evidence—the confession, the body, the money trail—he still claimed he loved Josephine and had no reason to kill her.

Her family finally buried her properly on June 1st, 2021.

This story has stayed with many Nigerians because of how it happened. A woman gave seven years of her life. She gave her savings. She gave her trust. And just days before walking down the aisle, she was tricked into kneeling for a prayer that became her last moment.

People who followed the case still ask the same question: if you cannot trust the man who says he wants to marry you, then who can you trust?

For Josephine’s family, the answer came too late. For others, her story remains a painful lesson about love, money, and the things people hide behind smiling faces.

“She Knelt to Pray for Our Marriage – Then I Shot Her”: How a Bridegroom Killed His NSCDC Fiancée 11 Days to Wedding.