While Nigeria welcomed the New Year with fireworks , laughter, and celebration, two families were thrown into unimaginable grief ,their world shattered forever, as Abuja-based nurse Chinemerem Pascalina Chuwumeziem and lawyer Princess Nwamaka Mediatrix Chigbo were brutally killed on their way home after serving humanity. PATIENCE IVIE IHEJIRIKA, writes that the duo, did not die in hospitals or courtrooms, but on the streets they trusted, allegedly murdered within just 48 hours by still-unidentified criminals in the nation’s capital, turning joy into mourning and exposing the growing danger faced by everyday Nigerians
On Saturday, January 3, and Monday, January 5, 2026, the only mistake Abuja-based nurse Chinemerem Pascalina Chuwumeziem , a staff of Federal Medical Center, Jabi, and lawyer Princess Nwamaka Mediatrix Chigbo , a former Treasurer of the Nigerian Bar Association, Abuja chapter, a member of the International Federation of Women Lawyers (FIDA) and the Global Association of Female Lawyers, (GAFA) made was trusting that returning home from work alive was still possible in the nation’s capital.
Today, their families wail in disbelief. Colleagues mourn in silence. Friends live in fear. And ordinary Nigerians ask the same painful question: If those who save lives and defend justice are not safe, who is?
Reports and eyewitness testimonies reveal a frightening pattern, after long, exhausting shifts spent saving lives, informing the public, or serving society, an increasing number of professionals; journalists, doctors, nurses, and other professionals and innocent Nigerians , are now losing their own lives to the growing menace of “one-chance” criminals and kidnappers across Abuja. What should be a simple journey home has become a gamble with death.
Another typical case is that of a radio broadcaster who was reportedly stabbed to death at the Mpape axis after closing late from work mid last year. In another incident along the busy Sahad Stores in Central Area, a driver with the Nigerian Television Authority ( NTA) returning to the office at about 8:30pm was attacked in similar circumstances. These are not isolated tragedies but part of a widening nightmare in which those who keep the nation running are hunted on the very roads meant to take them safely home.
This is no longer about isolated crimes. It is about a city where health workers and professionals leave for work but may never return. These forces questions such as , how many more bodies must be counted before the government wakes up?
A nurse and colleague of the late nurse Chinemerem Pascalina Chuwumeziem, at the Federal Medical Center said, “Unfortunately, for many Nigerian health workers, the danger does not end when their shifts do. After long hours of saving lives, they step out of hospital gates into a different kind of emergency, one in which they, not their patients, become the victims.”
Across Nigeria, doctors, nurses, and other health professionals are increasingly being targeted by two deadly threats: one-chance criminals in major cities and kidnappers operating across rural and peri-urban communities. Together, these attacks have deepened fear and despair in a sector already buckling under staff shortages, burnout, and worsening insecurity.
LEADERSHIP Sunday reports that the growing pattern of attacks has turned routine journeys to and from work into life-threatening risks for health workers, and others like Barrister Nwamaka Mediatrix Chigbo, an many of whom now leave their homes unsure if they will return alive
How It Happened
On January 3, 2026, Nurse Chinemerem Pascalina Chuwumeziem closed her afternoon shift at the Federal Medical Centre (FMC), Jabi, just as she had done countless times before, caring for patients and offering compassion beyond the call of duty.
That evening, she boarded a vehicle to return home. She never made it.
Her body was discovered the following morning by the roadside in Abuja. Police said the killing bore the hallmarks of a “one-chance” robbery gone fatal.
The news sent shockwaves through the healthcare community in the Federal Capital Territory. During a candlelight procession organised by the National Association of Nigerian Nurses and Midwives (NANNM), a distraught colleague asked through tears, “She had just finished saving lives. How can her journey home cost her own life?
In a similar tragedy, the Chigbo family announced the death of Princess Nwamaka Mediatrix Chigbo, an Abuja-based lawyer, who was abducted and killed by still-unidentified kidnappers in the Federal Capital Territory on Monday, January 5, 2026.
According to Nwamaka, the elder sister of Dr. Maureen Chigbo, the Editor/Publisher of Realnews Magazine, the victim was reportedly on the phone with her sister Anthonia shortly before her abduction.
According to a family statement, the call remained live after Anthonia briefly stepped away, during which Nwamaka’s distress cries were heard before the line went dead.
Repeated attempts by family members to reach her failed until a call eventually connected and a male voice demanded a N3 million ransom, threatening to kill her if it was not paid. Subsequent calls were either unanswered or filled with screams, as Nwamaka pleaded, “I am dying… please send the money.” The phone later went permanently dead.
The family said, despite police assurances that they were tracking the kidnappers, the family was informed the following day that a woman in critical condition had been rushed to a specialist hospital in Abuja. Dr. Maureen Chigbo immediately travelled from Lagos, only to identify her sister’s lifeless body in the mortuary, bearing visible signs of torture, including bruises, swollen eyes, and a cracked skull.
Nwamaka was a former Treasurer of the Nigerian Bar Association (Abuja Branch), a member of FIDA and GAFA, and a former President of the Catholic Lawyers Association, Abuja. A devout Catholic, she was also an author and Vice President of the Infant Jesus Association.
While thanking the police for their efforts so far, the family has called for justice, urging authorities to ensure that those responsible are brought to book. Funeral arrangements, they said, will be announced in due course.
LEADERSHIP Sunday recalls that just three months earlier, in October 2025, Hadiza Musa, a dedicated nurse at Ahmadu Bello University Teaching Hospital (ABUTH), Zaria, was tragically killed. After finishing her shift, she boarded a tricycle home, only to be shoved from the moving vehicle by suspected one-chance criminals, sustaining fatal injuries.
Relatives described Hadiza Musa as cheerful, dutiful, and always ready to respond to emergency calls. Her death sparked outrage across Kaduna State’s healthcare community, with many nurses now fearing public transport after sunset.
While urban centres grapple with one-chance criminals, rural and interstate routes have become fertile grounds for kidnappers, who increasingly target doctors and nurses as high-value victims. In 2024, gunmen raided a primary healthcare centre in Birnin-Gwari, Kaduna, abducting both nurses and patients, underscoring the growing risks faced by health professionals nationwide.
Along the Abuja–Nasarawa corridor, doctors are increasingly abducted while travelling for on-call duties, while in Kogi, Edo, Ondo, Abia, Imo, Benue, and Cross River, multiple cases have been reported of doctors kidnapped either on their way to work or returning from shifts.
In October 2025, Dr. Chinonye Nwachukwu, a Ukraine-trained physician, was abducted while en route to Garki Hospital, Abuja, regaining her freedom only after three agonising weeks. The Nigerian Medical Association (FCT Chapter) hailed her rescue as a “collective victory,” yet the trauma lingers.
A month later, in November 2025, the Medical director of Ukehe General Hospital, Dr. Innocent Nwoga, was kidnapped along the Egede–Ninth Mile–Nsukka Road, further highlighting the growing dangers faced by health workers across Nigeria.
On October 30, 2025, Dr. Tochukwu Mbanugo, a consultant neurosurgeon at Nnamdi Azikiwe University Teaching Hospital (NAUTH), Nnewi, was abducted on his way home, hours after performing multiple complex brain surgeries. Reports indicate he was attacked at Omatha Junction, Uruagu, Nnewi, following an intensive day in the operating theatre.
The Federal Ministry of Health and Social Welfare described the abduction as “an assault on the nation’s health security.”
Minister of State for Health, Dr. Iziaq Salako, called the incident heartbreaking and unacceptable, highlighting the dire shortage of specialists: fewer than 150 practising neurosurgeons serve over 220 million Nigerians, far below the WHO benchmark of one per 100,000 people. “An attack on one specialist doctor is a direct assault on the nation’s health security,” he said.
The killing of Nurse Chinemerem Pascalina Chuwumeziem in Abuja, along with a spate of kidnappings across the country, has prompted unions and professional bodies to demand urgent government action. Enya Osinachi, National Secretary of NANNM (Federal Health Institutions Sector), called Chinemerem’s death “wicked and senseless,” warning that worsening insecurity threatens the safety, morale, and availability of essential health personnel. Jama Medan, Chairman of NANNM’s FCT Council, said, “Our lives are no longer safe. Nurses leave home daily to save lives, yet many are uncertain of returning alive.”
The President of the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA), Prof. Bala Audu, described the wave of attacks as a “pandemic,” stressing the need for enhanced security around health facilities. Stakeholders are calling for dedicated staff buses for night shifts, streetlights, CCTV, community surveillance near hospitals, increased police patrols on high-risk routes, collaboration between hospitals and security agencies, public sensitisation on dangerous vehicles, and swift arrest and prosecution of perpetrators.
From Chinemerem in Abuja to Hadiza in Zaria, to dozens abducted across states, the stories of slain and kidnapped health workers expose deep cracks in a system already stretched beyond its limits, leaving those who save lives vulnerable to death on their way home.
Observers of the view that the tragic deaths of Nurse Chinemerem Pascalina Chuwumeziem and Barrister Princess Nwamaka Mediatrix Chigbo are not just isolated incidents, but that they are a glaring indictment of a system that leaves its most dedicated servants vulnerable.
Sadly, one saved lives, the other defended justice, yet both were taken in cold blood while simply trying to return home.
Their stories demand urgent action. The government must ensure the safety of health workers and professionals, strengthen security on roads, provide safe transport for night and early-morning shifts, and bring perpetrators to justice swiftly. Society, too, must recognise and protect those who dedicate their lives to ours.
If Nigeria continues to allow fear to replace safety, the country risks losing not just its heroes, but the very pillars of health, law, and human dignity. Concerned authorities must act now before more lives are senselessly lost.
