Leaders of the Movement for the Actualisation of Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB) have been urged to take a headcount of their members in the South East geo-political zone, especially the ones detained in various police formations, to determine whether it was not “their members that were criminally murdered and thrown into the Ezu River in Anambra State.”
In the same vein, the Assistant Inspector General of Police in charge of Zone 9 has been called upon to investigate the origin of the corpses brought out of the river with a view to ascertaining the cause of death and the area where the act was committed.
A Non-Governmental Organisation, Total Peace in Nigeria, made the call on Tuesday.
It believes there was no way a huge number of people could be killed in any community and the community would not come out to speak, adding that it strongly suspects that the corpses belong to the MASSOB.
President of the NGO, Chukwuemeka Omenka, who spoke to newsmen in Umuahia lamented that the slow pace of investigation into the matter was making Nigerians apprehensive that a cover up was in the making.
“So many issues have cropped up in the country, especially those concerning innocent Nigerians and after a while the matter is totally forgotten and life goes on.
“The discovery of the over 40 corpses from the Ezu River should be a matter of concern for every Nigerian because no one knows what has happened.
“As an organisation, we are not unaware of the many members of the Movement for the Actualisation of Sovereign State of Biafra that have been detained over the years and are currently languishing in various prisons in the country simply because they came out to defend their God-given constitutional rights,” Omenka said.
Omenka reminded Nigerians that the number of corpses recovered from the river was so alarming that organisations whose members are in detention should not just sit back and watch, adding that the matter should not be allowed to be swept under the carpet as was done to other matters.
“We are concerned. We are worried, not because people have not spoken out, but because it is likely going to amount to nothing.
“We call on MASSOB to cross check with the police and also call on the police AIG to do the same on the number of inmates in police formations in the zone.
“We are aware of the no-love-lost between the police and MASSOB. This is why we are making this call today.”
Efforts to reach spokesman of the MASSOB proved abortive, as he did not pick his calls, but a member of the organisation who pleaded anonymity said they had been asked to do a thorough investigation into the matter and report to the headquarters.
It would be recalled that late last month, the community of Amansea in Anambra State woke up to the rude shock of several bodies floating on the Ezu River, their only source of drinking water, and then raised an alarm.
Already, Anambra State Government had carried out an autopsy on the corpses but nothing was revealed.
The National Assembly through a motion brought by Senator Andy Uba has asked its committee on police and other security agencies to wade into the matter and report back, just as Anambra State Commissioner of Police, Bala Nassarawa, said the command was also investigating the incident.
Meanwhile, Anambra State Commissioner of Health, Lawrence Ikeako, has confirmed that autopsy on 19 corpses has been completed.
Four of the corpses that were buried by the side of the river and later exhumed have now been properly buried, Ikeako added.
In an interview in his office on Wednesday, Ikeako also refuted reports that the autopsy was conducted at Nnamdi Azikiwe University Teaching Hospital, Nnewi. According to him, the autopsy was conducted at the Anambra State University Teaching Hospital, Awka.
However, according to him, final report of the autopsy will be released after the police pathologist had finished his own examination.
When reminded that a section of the human rights community would not trust police pathologist’s report, Ikeako said it is not common in medicine to falsify result of such exercise.
Also, global human rights watch, Amnesty International (AI), has alleged that hundreds of fatal police shootings and other organised killings in Nigeria are poorly investigated by relevant security agencies thereby making justice for victims and their families bastardised.
The AI in a report released on Tuesday added that such shoddy or deliberately perverted ways of handling crime often leave victims’ families anguished.
“This is because the bereaved are not being investigated effectively because of a failure of the Nigerian justice system.
“In Nigeria, ‘No Justice for the Dead’ illustrates the gaps in the investigation of deaths following police action in Rivers State where basic techniques of crime scene protection and investigation are not applied and autopsies and inquests are either not carried out, or are inadequate,” the report said.
It added that relatives are often left with no answers about the fate of their family members and rarely receive justice.
AI believes that Rivers State is representative of other Nigerian states where violent deaths at the hands of the police are not investigated adequately.
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