From Obinna Odogwu, Awka
Residents of Anaku community in Ayamelum Local Government Area of Anambra State, yesterday, protested the sudden disappearance of their son, Dr Christian Madubuko, a former commissioner in the state.
Madubuko, who served in three different ministries as commissioner in Governor Willie Obiano’s administration, was reported missing by his family few days after his controversial resignation from the cabinet.
The protesters, who trouped out in their numbers, carried placards with various inscriptions. They moved around their town, chanting songs to register their displeasure over the situation.
Elder brother to the ex-commissioner, Richard Madubuko, told newsmen that their brother went missing about 13 days ago and that his phones had been switched off since then.
He said: “For 13 days now, we have been searching for our brother. We saw him last around 10th or 12th January, but on the 13th we heard news that he had gone missing. We reported to the police but they said that he was not kidnapped but went missing.”
The family said that the last place the ex-commissioner visited was the secretariat of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) in Awka where he went to sign papers for the constitution of caretaker committee for their community.
They also said that already, the police had collected N100,000 and N15,000 from them for tracking and for sending signals respectively. But that effort, according to them, has not yielded any fruit.
Efforts to get words from APGA secretary in the state, Anthony Ifeanya, proved abortive as he did not pick calls to his phone and did not return same as at the time of filing this report.
Police public relations officer in the state, Haruna Mohammed, confirmed the incident, and said that the Commissioner of Police, John Abang, had ordered for thorough investigation into the matter.
He also dismissed the allegation that police collected N115,000 from the family and requested that a formal petition should be forwarded to the CP so that investigation could be opened on that.