The peace of Abuja’s Dawaki district was shattered on July 23, 2025, when a school nurse and a 14-month-old toddler went missing from Clear Hope Foundation Academy. What initially appeared to be a case of abduction for ransom soon revealed a far more horrifying narrative that has shaken the FCT education community to its core.
FCT Commissioner of Police, Saka Adewale Ajao, disclosed at a press briefing on Friday that the police had arrested a security guard, David Moses, who, in connivance with an accomplice still at large, murdered both the nurse, Mrs. Chinyere Anaene (55), and toddler, Nanenter Asher Yese, after collecting ₦3 million from the victims’ families under the false pretense they were alive.
According to CP Ajao, the police had launched an immediate investigation after the victims were declared missing and a ransom of ₦250 million was demanded from the nurse’s husband using her phone. As the investigation deepened, evidence led the police to Moses, who broke under interrogation and confessed to the grisly crime.
In his chilling confession, David Moses admitted that he and his friend, Sunday Irimiya (still at large), plotted the abduction and initially demanded ₦250 million. Eventually, they settled for ₦3 million. Despite already murdering the victims, they collected the ransom and attempted to flee. A dispute over how to split the money would become the breaking point.
Moses revealed that Sunday stabbed him during a disagreement over the ransom. Wounded and panicked, he sought shelter in a nearby home where he shared a partial version of the story. “I was afraid the community might kill me,” Moses confessed. Eventually, he asked the man to call the police, who took him to the hospital for treatment.
After receiving medical care, Moses confessed fully. “When the police began to ask me questions, I started narrating the whole story from the beginning,” he said. His recounting of the murder was as brutal as it was disturbing. The nurse, a woman he described as kind and generous, was lured into a toilet where Sunday strangled her with a rope.
“She gave me ₦300 that day to eat,” Moses said tearfully. “She was always kind. She had given me food money before. But Sunday said we needed to kill her for the plan to work.”
The most disturbing part of the confession came when Moses detailed the murder of the toddler. Initially reluctant, Moses said he was pressured by Sunday to bring the child as well. “He told me if we didn’t bring the baby, the ransom wouldn’t be enough. I said no, but he insisted.”
Clear Hope School has come under severe scrutiny following the incident. Police have arrested the school’s principal, two other security guards, and the Chief Security Officer of the private security company that deployed Moses to the school.
The security company, represented by Zachariah Fiyinfoluwa, admitted serious lapses. Fiyinfoluwa confessed that Moses’ employment was not properly documented, and no guarantor details were kept. “For us not to keep the record, I accept that it’s our fault,” he admitted.
More troubling was the company’s failure to conduct routine supervisory visits to the schools where their personnel were posted. Fiyinfoluwa could not confirm whether such checks were carried out at Clear Hope Foundation Academy prior to the incident.
The murders have sparked national outrage and renewed calls for strict regulations in the recruitment and deployment of school security personnel. Questions are being raised about the vetting processes used by private security firms and the oversight responsibilities of school management.
While police continue their search for Sunday Irimiya, the fugitive suspect, many are still in disbelief that a seemingly ordinary school environment could become the setting for such heinous crimes. For the grieving families, the pain is unimaginable and justice can never come quickly enough.
As investigations unfold, parents across Abuja and beyond are now demanding tougher security protocols in schools, improved staff background checks, and regular government audits of private education facilities. The lives of Mrs. Anaene and baby Nanenter may be gone, but their tragic deaths have exposed a dangerous gap in Nigeria’s school safety infrastructure.
