PHIL OKOSE , Onitsha
The South East Zone of Campaign for Democracy, (CD) and Rights, Liberty Access and Peace Defenders’ Foundation (HURIDE), weekend, urged Governor Chukwuma Soludo of Anambra State to set up a panel of inquiry to unravel the mysterious circumstances surrounding the disappearance of a billionaire, Chief Benjamin Ezemma (a.k.a. BIG-BEN, a real estate developer and Chief Obiora Agbasimelo (a.k.a. Oga Ndi Oga), respectively.
Addressing a press conference in Awka, the Anambra State capital, High Chief Dede Uzor A Uzor, who is the chairman of CD in South East and Executive Director, HURIDE, disclosed that Agbasimelo was the former Labour Party, LP, governorship candidate in 2021 election.
The rights groups expressed pain at the situation where prominent people disappear in the State, supposedly in every election.
The wife of the Anambra-born billionaire, Mrs Benedicta Ezemma, had appealed to President Ahmed Bola Tinubu, the wife, Mrs Oluremi Tinubu, the Inspector-General of Police (IG) and the Director-General of Directorate of State Security (DG DSS) to investigate the disappearance of her husband.
In the petition, Mrs Ezemma called on the president to direct the top brass of the country’s security apparatus to direct for the immediate arrest of those behind the disappearance of her husband since November 12, 2024.
Mrs Ezemma lamented that all the petitions she wrote to the security operatives in Anambra state had not yielded any result.
However, the rights groups expressed optimism that Governor Soludo can get to the root of this unfortunate disappearance by setting up a high-powered Panel of Inquiry which would be headed by a Judge, either retired or serving.
They said the panel which membership should not be anything less than five members, should have the power to hear the complaints of those involved in one way or the other with the mysterious disappearance, including their widows and anybody whose name in one way or the other is mentioned in the matter.
CD/HURIDE said the panel should be far-reaching in its findings about the disappearance, recommend those established to have perpetrated the incidents to the State Government for prosecution and how to prevent future occurrences.
The rights groups noted that it is a bad omen for Anambra State, especially under the leadership of a Professor of international repute, that persons, prominent ones for that matter, were disappearing without concrete efforts made to bring the perpetrators to book, even when some have enrolled into Politics.
“We are not living in a banana republic. How can men of means be disappearing and nothing is done about it. Even if Anambra is still in the stone age and it is not, these things cannot happen without repercussions for the perpetrators”, said the groups
“We shall organise a massive protest before the end of August 2025 to drawn the respective government authorities to address these unconcluded investigations; our sons are not to be seen nor released by their captors months and years since the cruel incident.
“It is against this backdrop that we are calling on Governor Soludo to do something drastic not only to arrest the situation but find out those behind the disappearance of Ezemma and Agbasimelo since our security operatives could not find out those behind the disappearance.
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