Troops of 82 Division in collaboration with other security agencies on Thursday, April 24, 2026, successfully retrieved the bodies of Master Warrant Officer Audu M Linus and Private Gloria Matthew, the Army couple murdered by gunmen in Imo State while en route to their traditional wedding.
The Nigerian Army released a statement to that effect on Saturday, April 26, 2026, confirming the recovery of the couple’s remains nearly four years after the attack.
MWO Audu Linus and Pte Gloria Matthew were killed on April 30, 2022, while travelling to Imo State to fulfil the traditional rites of their matrimony. According to the Army, the couple were attacked, shot, and beheaded by gunmen. A family member who spoke to the BBC at the time said the duo were attacked by four armed persons at an area not far from Banana junction in Orlu. “It happened around 3pm. They were travelling to Nkwerre from Lagos,” the family source said. The source added that the couple were killed in front of Gloria’s 10-year-old daughter and her mum.
In a May 3, 2022 statement, then Director, Army Public Relations, Brig. Gen. Onyema Nwachukwu, described the killings as “gruesome, barbaric and most despicable”. “The Nigerian Army, on Saturday 30 April 2022, received information on the gruesome, barbaric and most despicable manner in which members of the Indigenous People of Biafra and its armed affiliate, Eastern Security Network, murdered in cold blood two soldiers, Master Warrant Officer Audu M Linus and Private Gloria Matthew, who were in transit to Imo State for their traditional wedding,” Nwachukwu said.
Reports at the time said Matthew was first raped before she was shot dead along with her fiancé. The criminals filmed the incident and circulated the video online. President Muhammadu Buhari, in a statement on May 4, 2022, described the beheading of the soldiers as “barbaric” and directed security agencies to “do their utmost in apprehending the perpetrators of these barbaric acts and bring them to justice”.
The Army blamed IPOB and the Eastern Security Network for the attack. IPOB spokesperson Emma Powerful denied the allegation. “We, therefore, wish to place on record that IPOB has no hands in the said atrocity which is an abominable act in Igbo tradition,” Powerful said in a statement on May 4, 2022. “No true Igbo will hurt an in-law, how much more a married daughter in Igbo land.”
The April 24, 2026 recovery operation was carried out by troops of 82 Division working with other security agencies in the South-East. The Army’s Saturday statement did not disclose the exact location where the bodies were found but noted that forensic processes would commence to aid proper identification and subsequent handover to the families for burial.
The retrieval comes amid sustained military operations in the region. In January 2024, troops of 34 Artillery Brigade raided a terrorist camp in Ezioha community, Mbaitoli Council Area, and exhumed dead bodies of victims buried in shallow graves near the den. Brigade Commander Brig. Gen. Usman Lawal said the army exhumed the bodies for thorough forensic assessment so that where possible, they could be traced to their families and handed over for a befitting burial.
Director of Defence Media Operations, Maj.-Gen. Markus Onoja, said in a March 2026 briefing that troops of Operation Udo Ka neutralised suspected terrorists and recovered improvised explosive devices in Imo. He added that clearance operations also led to the arrest of suspected cultists and recovery of weapons in Ebonyi and Cross River.
The Army reiterated its commitment to tracking down those behind the 2022 killing and restoring peace in the South-East. The families of MWO Linus and Pte Matthew have yet to issue a public statement following the recovery.
