Geoffrey Anyanwu, Awka
Anambra State Governor, Chief Willie Obiano, has urged the Federal government to probe the murder of a Nigerian corporate executive and Deputy Director-General, Chartered Insurance Institute of Nigeria (CIIN), Mrs. Elizabeth Obianuju Ndubuisi-Chukwu, in Johannesburg, South Africa, last month June.
Mrs Ndubuisi-Chukwu who was attending a meeting of the African Insurance Organisation in the South African commercial capital, was found dead in her room at Emperor Palace Hotel on June 13.
In a letter to the Secretary to the Government of the Federal (SGF), Mr. Boss Mustapha, Gov. Obiano appealed to him to use his good offices to get the South African police authorities to take steps to unravel the murder.
In the letter released in Awka, Obiano explained that it had become necessary to request the SGF to personally wade into the killing because the police in Johannesburg might be capitalising on the absence of a Foreign Minister in Nigeria to treat the case with levity.
Obiano noted that reports he received on the death of the 53-year-old indigene of Anambra State suggests that the South Africa police were treating the murder as just another Nigerian’s death in their country.
Emperor Palace Hotel explained at the weekend that it had yet to release the CCTV footage to the police because they had yet to request for it.
Obiano further said; “It is disheartening that over three weeks after the dastardly act, the South Africa police have not deemed it necessary to investigate the heinous crime with the seriousness it deserves.
“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.
The governor, however, argued in the letter to the FG that a “painstaking investigation by the South Africa 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 June 12.
“The job has been made easier now because Emperor Palace Hotel has agreed to release the CCTV footage to them.”
Vowing not to relent in seeking justice for any Anambra indigene, Obiano said: “The people and government are grateful to the Nigerian human rights community led by Prof. Chidi Odinkalu, the past chairman of the Nigerian Human Rights Commission, for fighting to ensure that justice is done to the memory of Mrs Ndubuisi-Chukwu, a mother of two boys.”
