Mental illness delayed his youth service for nine years – Says brother of doctor who killed his mother

Cletus, one of the older brothers of  Emmanuel Ogah, the medical doctor who stabbed their 59-year-old mother, Janet, to death penultimate Thursday, has revealed that his younger brother (Emmanuel) graduated from the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, in 2007.

But he said due to ‘depression relapse’ he suffers occasionally, he went for his one year national youth service in 2016, nine years after.

Cletus revealed that Emmanuel was 27 years then when he graduated, having been a brilliant student.


According to Punch, he said all the seven children of their late mother are graduates and four of them graduated from ABU. Cletus said he read Chemical Engineering.

He said Emmanuel did well in his secondary school certificate result and scored well over 4 points in Cumulative Grade Point Average when he graduated in Medicine from ABU in 2007.

He said, “He made 4.38 as his CGPA at ABU.

While Cletus said it was true that he suffered ‘depression relapse’ on some occasions, he said the family had taken him to certain psychiatric facilities for medical intervention in Kaduna, Kano, Lagos and Uyo.

He said,

“We noticed the problem of depression in him in 2008, when he was doing his housemanship. He was reported to have spoken rudely to his superiors.
“He was sent away from that place. Again, in subsequent years, he went to some other places for the housemanship, the same thing happened.
“We took him to the Psychiatric Hospital at Yaba, Lagos in 2014 where he was receiving treatment and doing his housemanship.
“Eventually he completed it at this place, but he was still asked to go and serve the one year national service, because they said he was 27 when he graduated from ABU. That was what he was doing at Jigawa State, when he returned last Wednesday and he killed our mother on Thursday.”

On that fateful day, Emmanuel, who was believed to be under some ‘forces’ controlling him, knifed their mother to death at her restaurant located along Lafenwa-Itele Road, Aparadija in Ado Odo/Ota Local Government Area of Ogun State.

He did not kill the mother in their residence on Number 16 Ololade Lateef Street, Aparadija, Lafenwa-Itele, as earlier reported.

The picture of the corpse which had gone viral on the social media was gory enough. Emmanuel disembowelled the mother, and gave her other deep cuts on the face and neck.

Also the video of his ‘detention’ inside burglar proof section of the restaurant after he had done the havoc, did not portray him as being coherent in all the questions put to him on why he killed the mother.

Cletus, who said he got to the scene two hours after Emmanuel had killed their mother, said he(Emmanuel) was still being ‘detained’  in the shop, when he arrived.

He said when he jabbed him and asked him why he killed their mother, he suddenly became remorseful, saying he never knew what came upon him.

He said,

 “When I arrived our mother’s restaurant two hours after the incident, Emmanuel was still being held inside the shop, I moved closer to him, jabbed him twice and asked him: ‘why did you kill our mother?’ All he could say was ‘brother, I did not know what happened, brother I did know what happened’ and he started crying.
“Then he began to say some incoherent things.
“I believe there were ‘some forces’ at work on him. Because from the responses, it seemed that he came to his senses suddenly and showed remorse. Emmanuel neither smoked nor drank alcohol. I had taken him out on some occasions.”

Cletus said their mother was a loving mother who supported her husband, Bernard Ogah, now a retired soldier to train all of them.

He recalled, “I could remember in my own case, my mother plaited hair for people in the barracks to raise money and supported in paying my school fees then while I was in ABU.
“My mother gave her all to her children.”

A service of songs was organised for her on Thursday in front of her former shop, where her virtues were celebrated.

One Edgar Zomboss, who claimed to know Emmanuel closely having once worked with him posted about three messages. He described him as a ‘good friend of mine’ and ‘a good person back then.’ He also wondered what must have gone wrong.

He posted,

“No sir. The guy has schizophrenia. I worked with him. He was a very good friend of mine and I knew him on a one on one basis.
“He used to be a good person back then in school. I think something terrible had harpened to him somehow.
“Oh my God, Dr Ogah! Dr Ogah!! I know Dr Ogah. He is (was) a very good friend of mine. He has schizophrenia and I am ready to testify on his behalf.”