FEATURE ARTICLE

Edited by Justin OkongwuFriday, July 17, 2015
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Onitsha, Nigeria

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KIDNAP VICTIM, MR. EMMANUEL CHUKWUEMEKA UDEMBA, FOUND IN A LOCAL MORTUARY

Late Mr. Emmanuel C. Udemba (center) with his twin youngest children.


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eaders of goodwill might find it oddly fascinating, but very sad, to learn that our recent public outcry, media outreach and other open appeals for a federally-ordered independent investigation into the kidnap and disappearance of Mr. Emmanuel Chukwuemeka Udemba in Anambra state have suddenly yielded a gloomy result. Some law enforcement agents in Anambra state have kept his wife and family in brutally torturous suspense for over three years. A few short days ago, the dreaded news was finally brought to them. Anambra state police command informed them that Mr. Udemba's body had been found- tragic news, shocking and disappointing. After the shock wore off and the police report considered, the outlandish particulars of the report of the report bear scrutiny.

We are, therefore, urgently calling on His Excellency, President Muhammadu Buhari to order a totally independent investigation into the kidnap and murder of Mr. Emmanuel Chukwuemeka Udemba as there is no evidence yet that the Federal Government has taken any official action on this grave matter.

Mr. Udemba was kidnapped on March 21, 2012 at the Nkwelle-Ezunaka axis, Anambra state, Nigeria. From then up till the end of the end of the previous federal administration, nothing serious and transparent was done to honestly investigate Mr. Udemba's kidnap and disappearance. Indeed, it may be no exaggeration to say that nothing had been done. However, with the advent of the new administration under the leadership of President Muhammadu Buhari, many are speculating that the "masterminds" of Mr. Udemba's disappearance and their "affiliates" hastily co-crafted a ploy; they dumped Emmanuel Udemba's corpse at the Otuocha mortuary in Anambra state. Did they think that by so doing they would cover up such an atrocity? The very idea is ill-conceived and puerile at best; this heartrending case, well-publicized globally, will not go away simply because the conspirators executed such an egregious tactic. There will be no meaningful closure until the masterminds of this heinous crime are apprehended, exposed and finally prosecuted. We are calling on President Buhari to order a totally independent investigation into the kidnap and murder of Mr. Emmanuel Chukwuemeka Udemba.

Meanwhile, we are grateful to God and to the present administration under President Buhari; we most respectfully request that the Federal Government takes immediate interest in this. Mr. Udemba was a good citizen of Nigeria and his family are all good citizens who have never harmed anyone.

We are pleased to believe that the mere presence of President Buhari as Nigeria's leader has already been making some positive impacts across the nation. His hard-earned charisma and demonstrated integrity have given rise to looters returning sizeable portions of their plunder, corrupt public officials quietly cleaning up their dirty conduct. Political sycophants are now scaling down their larger-than-life expectations and ambitions. The sponsors and masterminds of Udemba's kidnap and murder have, without doubt, miscalculated. We are calling on President Buhari to order a totally independent investigation into the kidnap and murder of Mr. Emmanuel Chukwuemeka Udemba - when he gives his order and the investigation is carefully done, who can doubt that the entire country will be more secure? Between President Buhari's zero tolerance for corruption and the presence of Mr. Solomon Arase, the new Inspector General of Police, this message will be clear: kidnapping for ransom and other sinister reasons are no longer a la mode in the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

Any criminal conspiracy that could impel a group of malefactors who call themselves "Nigerians" to hire kidnappers in order to eliminate fellow Nigerians, fellow business competitors, relatives or townsman has lost its hitherto comfortable accommodation in our country. We boldly inform those masterminds that Nigerians are now much smarter than the perpetrators of atrocities such as the Udemba kidnap and murder. We are calling on the Presidency to order a totally independent investigation into the kidnap and murder of Mr. Emmanuel Chukwuemeka Udemba.

Currently there are rumors that remnant protégés of some past ill-reputed police commissioners and deputy commissioners of police in Anambra state all of a sudden found his dead body. This is preposterous. Equally preposterous is another claim; that is, that Mr. Udemba's corpse has been at the Otuocha mortuary since March 24, 2012. We are calling on the President to order a totally independent investigation into the kidnap and murder of Mr. Emmanuel Chukwuemeka Udemba.

It is time - indeed past time - for aggressive and transparent investigations. ought to begin in earnest. Who was the person who first found the corpse of Mr. Udemba? Where was it first found? To whom was it reported when it was found? If the corpse of Mr. Udemba was truly found since March 24, 2012 then why was this concealed from his family members for over three years now? What on earth could explain such a claim? Further, who has (have) been paying the mortuary bill for the late Mr. Udemba -- the government? An individual? A group of individuals? By now, any serious and sincerely committed state police commissioner should have made so many arrests that the sponsors and masterminds of this kidnap-murder-and all case like it-would be unable to continue to hide. Does our country, Nigeria, have any honest forensic and autopsy experts in the police force who could step in to solve this type of problem? Perhaps every citizen should be left on his or her own when a thing of this horrible nature happens? We are calling on our own President Muhammadu Buhari to order a totally independent investigation into the kidnap and murder of Mr. Emmanuel Chukwuemeka Udemba.

An Attempt at the Destruction of a Good Family:

Families are the bedrock of every society and culture. Once families are destroyed, the nation will crumble. It is really that simple. The kidnap and murder of Mr. Emmanuel Chukwuemeka Udemba is now seriously being suspected as to be a ploy not only to destroy his business, it was a ploy to destroy his person and above all his God-given family. They must be stopped. We are asking every Nigerian to join us in declaring the kidnap and murder of Mr. Udemba a product of "sinister criminal conspiracy" (https://emmanueludemba.wordpress.com). We are calling on President Buhari to order a totally independent investigation into the kidnap and murder of Mr. Emmanuel Chukwuemeka Udemba.

Recognizing the historic milestone that Nigeria has achieved in the election and emergence of President Muhammadu Buhari, as the leader of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, we are putting up this follow-up article in support and sympathy for the wife and children of Mr. Emmanuel Chukwuemeka Udemba. We are appealing to President Muhammadu Buhari to direct the Inspector General of Police, Mr. Solomon Arase to order a full-scale-independent investigation into the kidnap and murder of Mr. Udemba.

While we applaud the excellence of so many of our men and women in the Nigerian Army, Air Force, Navy, Police Force and the Department of Security Services who risk their lives every day to protect lives and property in our nation, we wish to declare that sweeping reports afloat on the internet and in some of our local newspapers indicate that the following police officers should have been summoned to a special investigative panel and interrogation session with a view to verifying what they knew, know or did not know about the kidnap and murder of Mr. Emmanuel Chukwuemeka Udemba. A good result might naturally be expected when those interrogations are done individually and separately with each one of those officers. The law enforcement agents at issue here include Mr. Ballah Nasarawa, Mr. Dibal Paul Yakadi, Mr. Emeka Chukwuemeka, Mr. James Nwafor and Mr. Alexander Okeiyi (Director DSS). All of these law enforcement agents either were functioning in Anambra state on March 21, 2012 or are currently functioning there. We are hereby appealing to President Buhari to order a totally independent investigation into the kidnap and murder of Mr. Emmanuel Chukwuemeka Udemba.

The above-mentioned law enforcement agents should not be completely let off the hook with regard to any conceivable investigation flaws on the kidnap and murder of Mr. Emmanuel Udemba simply because they were and are in Anambra state during and after the kidnap of Mr. Udemba. They need to be thoroughly investigated regarding what each and every one of them knew and still knows about this grave injustice. Moreover, an avalanche of reports articles and comments afloat the internet raises repeated questions about the sincere collaboration and cooperation of the police in relation to this particular kidnap investigation process. Suffice it to maintain, at this juncture, that the way Mr. Udemba was kidnapped and murdered in cold blood horrifies his wife, children, friends, well-wishers and all of us. This global observation on the internet should be sufficient to prompt the Nigerian Police Force under Mr. Solomon Arase to conduct an independent, truthful, proper and transparent investigation into this very matter regarding the kidnap and eventual murder of an ordinary and good citizen of Nigeria.

Justin C. O. Okongwu (Editor)

Submitted by Supporters and Sympathizers of the E.C. Udemba Family
Onitsha, Anambra state, Nigeria
Email: [email protected]

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