Posted by By CHUKS ONUOHA, Umuahia on
A youth corper, serving at Government Secondary School, Kaura Namoda, Zamfara State has been killed and dumped along the road few weeks to his passing out parade.
A youth corper, serving at Government Secondary School, Kaura Namoda, Zamfara State has been killed and dumped along the road few weeks to his passing out parade.
Wilson Onwuchekwa, 27, whose NYSC number reads Zamfara State Batch A 2004, corps Number 2 M/04A/579 had been buried by council officials in a shallow grave before his body could be identified by the management and staff of NYSC secretariat in Gusau.
By the time his father learnt of his death and wanted to bring the corpse of his beloved son home for burial, doctors warned that the corpse had entered into a third degree decomposition which would make the exhumation and transportation to the East impossible.
Mrs. Jane Unwuchekwa, could only lament: 'Jesus! Jesus! Why did they kill Wilson? What has he done to deserve this kind of death?"
The father, Wilson Onwuchekwa, (Snr), described his son as a very peaceful person.
He said: 'My son Onwuchekwa Wilson was born in 1972 in Item, Bende Area of Abia State. He attended his primary school in Ohafia and Iperejere before entering Methodist College, Uzuakoli, where he completed his secondary education and gained admission to read Government and Public Administration. He graduated in 2002 and due to the unstable school system, his name came out as one of those to serve the nation in 2004 batch. He came out with second class lower division from Abia State University, Uturu. When he was posted to Zamfara State we were skeptical about his going but he told us that he would go and that God would be with him. He travelled and when he came back, he told us that the place was not as bad as people thought it was."
Around the middle of November 2004, Wilson came home and he was asked if he would come for Xmas. He said no, because he would end his service by February. 'I never knew that discussion was going to be the last one with him," the father said. 'When he did not come home in December, we did not think that anything was wrong.
'In the first week of January, somebody phoned to tell me that he was the friend to my son and that he was calling to find out if my son came home for Xmas. I told him that since he was calling from the same state and as his friend he should know better. Then he told me that he was calling from another part of the state and had been trying to reach him without success.
'A week later, a lady phoned to ask if I was Onwuchekwa and that she was calling to inform me that my son Wilson was dead. She gave me two numbers to call if I wanted to get details of his death.
'Right there, I called one of the numbers and got the Zonal Inspector of NYSC State Headquarters, Mr. Chika Osuagwu, who told me that he had been looking for a way to reach me. He said they had been looking for my son.
'He said that they reported to the police who told them that an unidentified corpse was found on the road and buried when they couldn't ascertain the identity but the photograph was taken and when compared with the picture of the missing corper, it was discovered that it was my son, Wilson.
'I went to NYSC headquaters in Gusau and after discussing with them, I went to a doctor to seek advice whether I could exhume my son's body and bring it home for burial. But the doctor advised me against that, stating that since he was not buried with any coffin, it would be difficult to manage his corpse to the east.
'I took a little sand as a symbol to represent his body and to say that his spirit has been brought home.
'I had thought that a youth corper is someone on a mission for his fatherland. The Federal Government should know that they took my son away alive and should bring him back to me alive. How can they just tell me that my son was dead and the matter ends there? I did not even see the corpse. I need proper explanation from NYSC. I need proper explanation from the police. I need proper explanation from the Federal Government of Nigeria. If corpers are no longer safe when they serve in other states apart from their home state, then they should be allowed to stay in their states of origin.
'If I cannot get enough explanation as to what killed my son, then I cannot guarantee what will follow." Onwuchewa said. He told Daily Sun that what is surprising to the family was how his son who was serving in Kaura Namoda (LGA) with a farm site at Manazu was found dead at Tsafe LGA in the same state. 'Maybe they strangled him with a cow rope and threw him out from a moving vehicle. Maybe they lured him to death because there were signs of strangulation and wounds on his two arms," he said.
Meanwhile, the management of NYSC in Zamfara State had on January 18, announced in an obituary the untimely death of Onwuchekwa Wilson.