|
|
Nigeria: Okiro Petitioned Over Missing Seven Youths, 10 Years After
 |
 |
|||||||||
|
||||||||||
|
|
|||||||||
|
||||||||||
Vanguard (Lagos)
29 June 2008
Posted to the web 30 June 2008
Vincent Ujumadu
SEVEN women, all widows in Nteje in Oyi local government area of Anambra State have urged the Inspector General of Police, Mr Mike Okiro to order the investigation of the circumstances that led to the mysterious missing of seven youths from the area in 1999. The names of the missing youths were given as, Mmaduabuchi Onwuagana, Chidere Ifediora, Sunday Ibegbunam, Sunday Okafor ,Nnamdi Nwaugo, Vincent Nwume, and Bartholomew Obiada.
Speaking with newsmen in Nteje, Mrs Obiageli Onwuagana who spoke on behalf of the other women alleged that the disappearance of the children started on Easter Monday in 1999 when the Nteje Vigilante Group under the control of Chief Mike Nwakalor the then president-general of Nteje Development Union (NDU) allegedly brought the youths to the meeting of the town union, adding that it was the last they saw their children.
.Mrs Onwuagana said that despite their protests, the youths were taken away and a fine of Fifty Thousand Naina (N50,000) imposed on anybody that would ask for their whereabouts.
"We engaged the services of an Onitsha- based lawyer Mr Onyechi Araka to write a petition to the then IGP in Abuja, AIG in Umuahia and the state commissioner of Police, but nothing was done by the police. We have even gone to the police in Awka, Zone 9 Police Umuahia and Force Headquarters Abuja but those behind the missing of our children have been throwing their weight around to cover up the case," Onwuagana said.
One Chief Patrick Odili who said he has been detained for about five times for standing up for justice on the matter said the men of the Nigeria Police from Zone 9 Command Umuahia and Force Headquarters should be directed to investigate the matter as previous investigations had led to nothing. But Nwakalo denied the allegations, describing it as baseless aimed at tarnishing his image. insisting that it was not the police that arrested the youths.
According to him, their demand is that their children should come back, stressing that they have to be told if the children were killed.
Nwakalor challenged the women to tell the world whether he came to their houses to pick their children or whether he took them away, but stated that it was the policemen who took them away and therefore directed the women to go to the police to ask about the whereabouts of their children.
He said "there was no time I imposed any fine on anybody that will ask of the whereabouts of the youths what we place fine of N50,000 was on anybody that will habour any Aguleri or Umuleri youth because at that period in particular the Umuleri/Aguleri war was on and we did not want our town to be a hideout for them and we were compelled to invite the police to ensure that criminals do not use the town as a hide-out, so those who were picked by the police might have been criminals".
|
Nwakalor said that the sudden agitation of the whereabouts of the youths after 10 years was politically motivated by those who want to get political power in the town through the back door.
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Copyright © 2008 Vanguard. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections -- or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Make allAfrica.com your home page | RSS Feed | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Top | Site Guide | Who We Are | Advertising | Search | Subscribe | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Questions or Comments? Contact us. Read our Privacy Statement. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
