The Megafu family has paid a tribute to Dr. Chinelo Nwando Megafu, one year after she was killed in the deadly Abuja-Kaduna train attack.
No fewer than nine people died while over 60 others were kidnapped when the Kaduna bound train was attacked on March 28, 2022, in the Kateri-Rijana area of the state.
The gunmen derailed the train by setting off an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) to blow up a section of the track after which they opened fire on the coaches and attacked the passengers.
The hostages were released in batches with the last batch regaining their freedom on October 5, 2022.
Shortly after the attack, late Megafu, a 29-year-old dental surgeon, took to Twitter to announce that she was on board and had been shot, calling for prayers from her followers.
“I’m on the train. I have been shot, please pray for me,” her tweet reads.
However, some Twitter users called her a liar, peddling “fake news” until a friend confirmed she had died from the wounds sustained during the attack.
The deceased had resigned from her job one month earlier and was preparing to travel out of the country before she met her untimely death.
In the tribute signed by her father, Ifeanyi Megafu, on behalf of the family, he described his late daughter as a “poster face of a beleaguered and slipping nation.”
“Chinelo, on this first anniversary, we remember you affectionately as we did yesterday and shall do tomorrow. We remain ever grateful to God for His Grace on your impactful life,” the tribute reads.
“On that fateful evening in your agony as life ebbed away, God’s spirit prompted you to tell the world the real truth as you prayed: ‘I’m on the train. I have been shot, please pray for me,’
“That act of courage immediately changed the narrative, putting paid to the usual vapid, sinful, lie and denial strewn statements that were checkmated. You became the poster face of a beleaguered and slipping nation. A nation you served so much prematurely consumed you. The country failed you and your generation.”
