Suspected sex worker found dead in Onitsha hotel

A suspected commercial sex worker died Monday at a hotel off an old market road in Onitsha, Anambra state.

The Nigerian tribune understood that the deceased, identified simply as Chisom from Enugu state, would have died after washing the dishes she had eaten with on Sunday night.

However, controversy has followed the cause of her death with the brothel abandoned by neighbors and residents, mostly sex workers.

While some said she hanged herself in her hotel room, others said she may have been strangled by an early caller over a financial disagreement, while another version claimed she took poison and died.

A neighbour, who declined to be named in print, claimed the deceased committed suicide when she learned that her lover had dumped her for another woman.

She said: “She had a boyfriend who used to spend a lot of money on her. Even last Christmas, the boy came to her with a sack of rice containing #200,000 and asked her to travel for Christmas and come back later.

“As soon as she came back, she was told that her boyfriend had married. Since then she started behaving abnormally and just three days ago she was seen with a rope in her hand.

“When we asked why she was holding the rope she became aggressive and early in the morning she swept her room and around 9am we learned that she committed suicide in her room.

“We saw her neck tied with a rope to the window in her room, but her legs touched the floor. So we don’t know if it was suicide because there was no foam coming out of her mouth, but the tongue was out.”

When the Nigerian tribune arrived on the scene, sympathizers were seen trying to gain entry to the hotel to get a glimpse of the corpse, while some sex workers hurriedly exited with their belongings for fear of being arrested.

Officers from the Onitsha Area Police Command, close to the scene of the incident, visited the hotel around 12:30 PM and left with some hotel officials, who returned with an ambulance and took the corpse away.

The police spokesman, DSP Tochukwu Ikenga, confirmed the incident and said the investigation has been launched.

“No suicide note was found in the room to suggest suicide. We are exploring all options to unravel the circumstances surrounding the death,” he said.