Governor Willie Obiano of Anambra State has asked the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Mr. Boss Mustapha, to use his good offices to get the South African police authorities to take serious steps to unravel the murder of a Nigerian corporate executive, Mrs. Elizabeth Obianuju Ndubuisi-Chukwu in Johannesburg last month.
Mrs. Ndubuisi-Chukwu, Deputy Director General of the Chartered Insurance Institute of Nigeria (CIIN), was found dead in her room at Emperor Palace Hotel on Thursday, June 13, 2019 while attending a meeting of the African Insurance Organisation in the South African commercial capital.
Governor Obiano in a letter to Mr. Mustapha, which was released in Awka, Anambra State, by the state Commissioner for Information and Public Enlightenment, Mr. C. Don Adinuba, explained that it had become necessary to request the SGF to personally wade into the killing because the police in Johannesburg may be capitalizing on the absence of a foreign minister in Nigeria to treat the case with levity.
The governor said that reports he had received on the death of the 53-year old indigene of Anambra State “and my analysis of the reports suggests that the South African police are treating this murder as just another Nigerian’s death in their country”.
Emperor Palace Hotel has explained at the weekend that it has not released the CCTV footage to the police because they had yet to request for it.
“It is disheartening that over three weeks after the dastardly act, the South African police have not deemed it necessary to investigate the heinous crime with the seriousness it deserves”, Obiano observed.
“Mrs. Ndubuisi-Chukwu was not an ordinary person, but a top corporate executive who was billed to become early next year the chief executive of her organization and was representing Nigeria at the meeting in Johannesburg where she met her untimely death”.
The South African Department of Home Affairs had in an autopsy report stated that Mrs. Ndubuisi-Chukwu was strangulated, contradicting some earlier reports suggesting that she might have died in her sleep or committed suicide.
Governor Obiano argued in the letter to the Federal Government that a “painstaking investigation by the South African police should be able to unearth easily the person or persons who entered her room after she had joined her colleagues attending the African Insurance Conference in the farewell dinner on Wednesday, June 12.
“The job has been made easier now because Emperor Palace Hotel has agreed to release the CCTV footage to them”.
Mrs. Ndubuisi-Chukwu’s death has been the subject of intense media scrutiny, with Governor Obiano vowing not to relent in seeking justice for any Anambra indigene “whose life is wasted anywhere, whether in Nigeria or abroad.
“The people and government of Anambra State are grateful to the Nigerian human rights community led by Professor Chidi Odinkalu, the past Chairman of the National Human Rights Commission, for fighting to ensure that justice is done to the memory of Mrs. Ndubuisi-Chukwu, a mother of two boys”.
Photo: Gov. Willie Obiano of Anambra State.
Send your news, press releases/articles to augustinenwadinamuo@yahoo.com. Also, follow us on Twitter @ptreporters and on Facebook on facebook.com/primetimereporters or call the editor on 07030661526, 08053908817.
