1 month ago
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By Nnamdi Ojiego
On September 29, 2025, a outcry of disbelief rippled done Nigeria’s media landscape. Somtochukwu Christelle Maduagwu, a lawyer, a model, and beloved Arise News anchor, was gone.
At conscionable 29, the pistillate her colleagues fondly called Sommie, had a beingness that looked similar a committedness unfolding. Instead, it ended violently; her dreams crushed by the aforesaid nationalist dysfunction she erstwhile prayed would ne'er devour her.
Prayer turned prophecy
Only weeks earlier, Sommie had taken to X (formerly Twitter) to constitute a little but haunting note: “I commune from the extent of my heart that Nigeria ne'er happens to maine oregon anyone I attraction about.” It work similar a lament. In hindsight, it became a prophecy.
On the nighttime of her death, equipped robbers invaded her flat artifact successful Katampe, Abuja. About 14 men stormed the building, forcing their mode into flats 1 aft another. In panic, Sommie jumped from her sixth-floor model to escape. She did not dice instantly. But what followed sealed her fate.
When the constabulary yet arrived, eyewitnesses said she was inactive alive. Yet officers reportedly claimed their patrol conveyance had nary fuel. By the clip she and an injured information defender were transported to Maitama District Hospital, minutes that could person saved her beingness were already lost.
There, a last indignity awaited her: infirmary unit allegedly refused to dainty her without identification. She and the defender some died.
Rejected
The pursuing morning, her colleagues struggled to talk connected air. On The Morning Show, Ojy Okpe’s dependable broke arsenic she explained what had happened: “She did not dice connected the spot. She went to the hospital, and she was rejected. Sommie’s beingness could person been saved, but the infirmary refused to dainty her.”
Dr. Reuben Abati called the negligence “a usurpation of aesculapian morals and the law.”
For galore Nigerians, her decease was not conscionable a idiosyncratic calamity but a nationalist mirror.
Insecurity, mediocre policing, and a breached wellness strategy converged to extinguish a beingness that should person been protected.
Dreams she carried
Born successful December 1995, Sommie’s way reflected a restless brilliance. She studied instrumentality successful the United Kingdom, returned to be the Nigerian Law School, and aboriginal chose broadcasting arsenic her stage. At Arise TV, she rapidly became known for her calm authorization and piercing questions.
But journalism was lone 1 magnitude of her life.
Whether arsenic lawyer, model, oregon journalist, Sommie carried a restless mission: to inspire, to empower, and to springiness voice.
Outrage
Her decease has drawn condemnation crossed the country.
On societal media, her last tweet was reposted thousands of times: Nigeria happened to her.
Sommie speaks
As archetypal runner-up astatine Miss Tourism Nigeria, she embraced pageantry not arsenic vanity but arsenic a platform.
In an interrogation she granted TVC aft the pageantry successful 2023, Sommie spoke candidly astir the battles she fought—between instrumentality and pageantry, betwixt stereotypes and self-belief, and betwixt her dreams and the realities of Nigeria. Excerpts:
Good to person you articulation us, Sommie. When you archetypal walked in, I thought, wait! She’s not that tall. And from what I cognize astir runway modeling, tallness is usually a large request alongside looks and presence. Yet present you are, making it successful pageantry. How did you interruption done that barrier?
It’s thing that really, truly deterred maine for the longest time, successful each honesty. And I lone conscionable spot the slug due to the fact that I thought, “okay, there’s arsenic overmuch arsenic there’s a tallness limit, there’s besides an property bounds to a batch of these contests. And truthful I’m approaching the property limit”.
What’s the property limit?
The property bounds for astir of them is astir 28. And, successful fact, for Miss Tou...
English (US) ·