Anambra State Governor, Willie Obiano, has urged the Federal Government to probe murder of a Nigerian corporate executive and deputy director -general, Chartered Insurance Institute of Nigeria (CIIN), Elizabeth Ndubuisi-Chukwu, in Johannesburg, South Africa, last month June.
Mrs. Ndubuisi-Chukwu, who attended a meeting of the African Insurance Organisation in 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 Federation (SGF), Boss Mustapha, Governor 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 yesterday, in Awka, Obiano explained that it has 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 and his analysis of the reports suggested that the South African police were treating the murder as just another Nigerian’s death in their country.
Emperor Palace Hotel had explained at the weekend that it was yet to release the CCTV footage to the police because they have not requested for it.
“It is disheartening that over three weeks after the dastardly act, the South African police have not deemed it necessary to investigate the heinous crime with the seriousness it deserves.
“Ndubuisi-Chukwu was not an ordinary person, but a top corporate executive, who was billed to become the chief executive of her organisation next year 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 Ndubuisi-Chukwu was strangulated, contradicting some earlier reports suggesting she might have died in her sleep or committed suicide.
The governor, however ,argued the FG to push for a “painstaking investigation by the South African police should be able to unearth the person or persons who entered her room after she joined her colleagues in 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 Ndubuisi-Chukwu, a mother of two boys.”
