The parents of 26-year-old Nnamdi Ogba, who was shot and killed last week, say they still cannot comprehend why anyone would take their son’s life, as Toronto’s Nigerian community made a wider public appeal for information about his killers.
“I want to know why this person, whoever they are, why would they take his life. I can’t… I can’t fathom why. It’s not Nnamdi, not Nnamdi,” Margaret Nsosu, Ogba’s mother, said Wednesday. “They have to turn themselves in to the police; they will turn themselves in to the police.”
Ogba was walking back to his parked car in the Scarlettwood Court area of Etobicoke on March 16 at about 11 p.m. after visiting with a teammate on his soccer team.
Two male suspects approached him from behind and shot him multiple times in the back, before fleeing on foot and then climbing into an SUV.
Homicide investigators have said they do not believe Ogba knew his killers nor did he do anything to provoke them.
His mother and other members of the Nigerian community expressed frustration at the prevalence of gunplay in some areas of the city, and its random and tragic impact on others.
“They can’t just go around taking innocent people’s lives,” Nsosu said. “What is the world coming to? Because I am sure if these idiots had a good life, if they had training, if they went to school, if they were educated and had a job they wouldn’t be involved with guns and taking peoples’ lives.”
Several leading members of the Nigerian-Canadian Association stood with Nsosu and his stepfather, Sylva Okezie, as they made their appeal for information that would lead to the arrest of Ogba’s killers.
“Within our community, we have bloggers, we have people on the internet, all the way from Nigeria,” Chidi Nwanyanwu, the association’s president, told CP24. “We’ve circulated not just the videos but pictures of Nnamdi, and whatever information we get we are passing it over to the police.”
He suggested that residents in some areas of the city are afraid to come out and speak about the scourge of gun violence in their communities.
“We organize a lot of outreach programs, and we expect people to come to learn about the activities of these hoodlums but people don’t come out to these programs,” Nwanyanwu said.
Several residents in the Scarlettwood Court area approached by a CTV News Toronto reporter on Wednesday were apprehensive to comment about the violence. One woman said she avoids going outside as much as possible because she “doesn’t feel safe.”
“It’s so easy to just come in here and shoot up people and take off and you’re never going to be seen,” one resident, who did not want to be identified, said.
Georgina Adom said she and her ten-year-old son heard the gunshots ring out that night. Adom said she feels anyone in the neighbourhood could’ve come to the fate Ogba did.
“What have we done to them?” she said. “I’ve been living here 10 years, 10 good years… I don’t have a problem with anybody.”
Speaking about Ogba’s life, Nsosu said her son was respectful and hardworking. He worked as an electrical engineer in Brampton and was soon to be married. He enjoyed playing recreational soccer.
“People come to me for counselling and I use my son as an example. I say that ‘if he could do this at this young age, then anyone can do it.’ So someone is just going to steal him from me? They will never know peace.”
