Posted by By CHRISTIAN OCHIAMA, Enugu on
For the family of Chief (Dr.) Adolphus Anyaso (Odiofele), May 30, will remain a bad day. It is a date that will continue to evoke nightmarish feelings because on that day, three years ago, life was snuffed out of their bread-winner by assassins still at large.
For the family of Chief (Dr.) Adolphus Anyaso (Odiofele), May 30, will remain a bad day. It is a date that will continue to evoke nightmarish feelings because on that day, three years ago, life was snuffed out of their bread-winner by assassins still at large.
The dastardly act, which can only be compared with the bestiality of the Rwanda killings, has continued to stick out like a sore-thumb as part of the reprehensible excesses of the notorious Bakassi Boys of the Mbadinuju era of Anambra State. Like a bad dream, it has refused to go away, haunting the people even up till now. But the surprise of the act is that the police are not doing much to bring the culprits to book.
According to Chinedu Anyaso, son of the deceased, people who were involved in the "broad daylight macabre scene are out there free. When the incident took place, they were arrested and released by the police almost immediately on orders from above."
However, Chinedu, with support from Wisemen Restoration Association, a non-governmental organization (NGO) and one David Onyagu who claimed to have witnessed the killing, is not resting on his oars to bring to justice the killers of his father.
In their petitions to President Olusegun Obasanjo and the Commissioner of Police, Anambra State, the NGO and Mr. Onyagu appealed for the "re opening of investigations into the incident so as to get to the root of the matter and bring the culprits to book."
Narrating the circumstances that led to his father's untimely death, Chinedu said, "On the fateful day, my father, in the company of a court bailiff and an unarmed policeman, had gone to Urueze village to serve court summons on some individuals in connection with a court case."
As he was trying to recall the events of that day, Chinedu almost choked with emotion. He had to be served cold water to enable him to regain his composure.
"It was while he was coming out from the house of Nnakenyi that they (my father, the bailiff and police man) were confronted by some youths who seemed irate".
Chinedu said, "Unknown to my father, the youths who looked organized, had set up a barricade on their way. As he tried to reverse, his car, a Mercedes Benz 200 with registration number AA 208 ANU, got stuck in a heap of sand. It was as he was trying to free the car from the sand that these youths, numbering about eight, came to them, forced him out of his car, brought out the policeman and the court bailiff and stripped them naked. They butchered my father, bundled him into the boot of the car and lit it up. The carcass of the car is still parked at the scene of the horrendous incident till today, almost four years after."
Chinedu, a petroleum products marketer based in Enugu, said that his family reported the case to the police. "They called us for the first time, entry was made and we were interrogated. Some people were arrested and were released that same day".
Chinedu, visibly shaken and in tears, said "when we went back the following day to enquire from the police about the extent of their investigation, they said that there was an order from above that they should discontinue the investigation and since then, nothing has been done. Worse, we have been receiving threats warning us not to follow up the case or we will suffer our father's fate. Since then, we've been lying low and things have not been smooth for the family".
Corroborating this, the NGO, in its petition, said that "on the 18th of February, 2005, one of those who witnessed the murder and who know the culprits was threatened with death".
In the petition signed by the National Chairman of Wiseman Restoration Association, Mr. Ibezi Ifeanyi, and other officers, the NGO claimed that the threat was "reported to the Awka Police Headquarters and informed them of those involved in the murder of Dr. Anyaso. The police rounded them up and released them again".
The NGO said, "With the new democratic dispensation, we are emboldened to write the president for justice".
David Onyagu, writing through his lawyer, Apostle A.A. Aghotor, said "our prayer is for the Commissioner of Police to re-arrest these murderers who have been released at the behest of some moneybags who boast that there will be no end to the killings of anybody who oppose them and nothing will happen as money is talking".
The police in Awka denied knowledge of any such petition even as they admitted that they are aware of the case.