Ezu River ‘Floating Corpses’–Does The Police Have A Case To Answer?
Last January 19, 2013, members of the sleepy Amansea community in Awka North Local Government Area of Anambra state, were horrified at the sight of close to 50 corpses floating freely on the Ezu River—one of the tributaries of the River Niger. It was a grotesque and blood chilling sight. Not surprisingly, the Nigerian State has moved at unraveling the identities of the corpses and the perpetrator(s) behind this heinous act, with the speed of President Jonathan’s transformation locomotives.
Whodunnit?
A couple of days ago, a joint sitting of two senate committees met in Awka, the Anambra State Capital, and heard that 10 of those 50 floating lifeless bodies may just have been victims of the Police’ infamous spate of extrajudicial killings. Some of the witnesses who testified before the Senate Committee had said that the Police had denied families of 10 missing persons access to them since October 22, 2012. The Senate committee on Police Affairs led by Hon Igwe Paulinus Nwagu and the committee on intelligence led by Hon Mohammed Magoro held their public hearing last Tuesday at the Multipurpose Hall of the Government House, Awka.
Amongst some of the statements garnered, was the indictment of the Police Special Anti Robbery Squad (SARS) of Akwuzu, Oyi Local Government Area. It is public knowledge that the Police SARS nationwide has been fingered in the mindless execution of hapless Nigerians under the guise of files marked as “Sudden and Untimely Deaths” (SUDs). Citizens have often relayed tales of how the Police has snuffed the lives off several suspects who were awaiting trial—suspects who may not have been able to afford the services of legal representatives.
Could SARS have been responsible for some (or all) of the floatingcadavers seen on the Ezu River? Was there a special genocidal action on the day in Anambra State to appease some water spirits? Is there a grand cover up by the police in the works? The Movement for the Actualization of the Sovereign State Of Biafra (MASSOB) also testified before the Senate Committee and insinuated that nine of its members had been arrested by the Police since November 9, 2012; and had not been allowed access to their families, MASSOB officials or Lawyers. MASSOB is suspecting that those nine persons may have ended up in the dark recesses of the ‘dead sea’ that Ezu River has become. For Pete’s sake, what sort of warped justice system do we run in this country?
The Amansea horror scene has to be seen for what it has become: a grand scale homicide that should not be trifled with. Someone, somewhere, has got their fingers badly burnt and soiled with the blood of ‘innocents’ (until proven guilty). Fifty Nigerian citizens were found floating close to the Bank of a River. I repeat: Fifty members of the Nigerian commonwealth had their lives snuffed off them; were hurriedly dumped in a River to decompose, while their assailants disappeared into the night, safe in the knowledge that they may never answer for their crimes.
We just cannot afford to sweep this case under the carpet like we have done several others. For the sakes of the families of the deceased; for the sake of Justice; for the sake of humanity; the dragnet of the enforcement agencies (including the State Security Service) has to spread further afield to Njikoka, Idemili North, Ekwusigo, Nnewi South, Anambra East, Awka South, Aguata, Enugu State and all the other communities bordering the Ezu River.
The Federal Government has to throw in everything in a bid to unravel this case as well. The Anambra State Police Commissioner, Alhaji Bala Nassarawa, who has displayed abysmal levels of incompetence in solving this mystery, should be asked to step aside pending the outcome of investigations. For while the denizens of Amansea counted close to 50 bodies and reported blood stains atop the Ezu bridge, the Police has said they only found 19 lifeless bodies and a Senator had blatantly denied there was any trace of blood on the bridge. The Nigerian Police is not exactly famous for calling a spade by its name.
I will envisage a scenario where the Police is stripped of the rights to be involved in this case in any capacity. This will also suggest that the Pathologists from the Anambra State Police command who have been drafted to exhume the corpses of the massacre for autopsy purposes, be withdrawn and immediately replaced with independent pathologists. The police has been (rightly or wrongly) indicted by the people of Anambra State in more ways than one. The Police Force should not be allowed to adjudicate its own case given the conflict of interest poser.
50 Nigerians (or thereabout) did not have a chance to defend selves; before being flung lifeless into the waiting mandibles of Aquarian vessels, it appears. This is surely no way to die. We owe it to the dead and their families to nail the culprits. Justice has to be served; or be seen to have been served. It is the very least we can do.
Even Agatha Christie would have had it no other way.
The writer can be engaged on Twitter on @egbas
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