Governor Willie Obiano has asked the Secretary to the Government of the Federation , Mr Boss Mustapha, to use his good offices to prevail on the South African police authorities to take serious steps to unravel the murder of a Nigerian corporate executive Mrs Elizabeth Ndubuisi-Chukwu in Johannesburg last month. We have details.
According to a statement made available to the ABS by the State Commissioner for Information and Public Enlightenment, Mr C-Don Adinuba, Mrs Ndubuisi-Chukwu, Deputy Director General of the Chartered Insurance Institute of Nigeria (CIIN), was found dead in her room at Emperor Palace Hotel on Thursday, June 13, while attending a meeting of the African Insurance Organisation in the South African commercial capital.
The statement explained that it had become necessary to request the SGFN to personally wade into the killing because the police in Johannesburg may be capitalizing on the absence of a foreign minister in Nigeria to treat the case with levity.
It quoted the governor as saying that reports he has 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 are treating this murder as just another Nigerian’s death in their country, noting that Emperor Palace Hotel as explained at the weekend that it has not released the CCTV footage to the police because they had yet to request for it.
The statement said the Governor lamented that 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 deserved and pointed out that 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.
It disclosed that 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 statement said Governor Obiano vowed not to relent in seeking justice for any Anambra indigene whose life is wasted anywhere, whether in Nigeria or abroad and commended the Nigerian human rights community led by Professor 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.
