Some residents of Enugwu village in Nanka community, Orumba North Local Government Area, Anambra State, are calling for justice for Mr. Toochukwu Onyemelukwe, a village youth who was allegedly killed in November 2021 by individuals thought to be vigilante members of the community.
The deceased allegedly died after being tied up and tortured by thugs who pretended to be security personnel after being apprehended on suspicion of stealing noodles.
The Secretary General of Enugwu Nanka Village Development Union, Mr Godson Ofokansi, while addressing journalists in Awka, on Friday, said since the incident happened almost a year, the community has been working to get justice for Onyemelukwe, but some influential members of the village were working to scuttle it.
Ofokansi lamented that despite several petitions written to the police authorities over the matter, none has received an answer.
Ofokansi said, “We have written several petitions to police, urging them to investigate the matter, to ascertain the truth behind the death of the youth, but no such petition has been allowed to move after approval.
“Very influential people are backing the hoodlums, who are the killers of the man, and they moved the file to Abuja, hoping to sit on it there.
“Just recently, the Inspector General of Police, IGP Baba Alkali was gracious enough to assign the matter back to the FCID, Enugu Annex to investigate it, and we are happy over this.
“It is the duty of the state to protect the life of her citizens. No life can be taken away save in a manner justified by law.
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“We are therefore calling on the Enugu Annex of the FCID to step in and investigate the death of Tochukwu Onyemelukwe. We believe that getting to the root of the death of this man will help stop further deaths in our beloved community.
“There have previously been killings in Nanka, and we are suspecting that most of the people have been killed in the same manner, and their deaths have been covered up.
“Onyemelukwe was deposited in the mortuary without any formal report to the police about the murder, and there were plans to conduct an autopsy on him to ascertain the cause of his death, but all of a sudden, some people forcefully took away the corpse and buried him in the midnight, simply to block the evidence from the autopsy.
“We suspect that his body may have been tampered with, but we do not want to mention names, rather, we are only calling on the police to conduct its investigation and make its findings public.”
Following the death of Onyemelukwe in November 2021, an uproar had risen in the community then, as many members of the community had denied that it was possible that he could have stolen noodles.
It was further gathered that Nanka community has been polarised along leadership lines for years, and that, while a section of the community is loyal to Ositadinma Development Union, another group, which is said to be the duly registered one Enugwu Nanka Village Development Union, controls other parts of the village.
Ofokansi further said, “Some members of the Ositadinma Development Union are seeking to take over the leadership of the village.
“The late boy was a member of Enugwu Nanka Village Development Union. We suspect that he may have been murdered because he opposed the leadership of ODU.”
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