Anambra: Human rights activist plans mass protest against Police over missing people

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By Madu Obi

Following the increasing spate of missing people in Anambra State, a human rights activist, Osita Obi has threatened to mobilize protesters against security agencies, saying the situation is getting out of hand.

Addressing reporters in Awka , Obi said it is becoming almost normal for people to mysteriously disappear in the state, while life continues as if nothing has happened.

He specifically dwelt on the recent kidnapping of a 34- year old estate developer and Vice chairman of the high- brow Dubai Estate in Awka, Mr Benjamin Ezemma, who has not been seen since November last year.

"If the security agents cannot find him, they must find those who kidnapped him. The 34 year old man started missing on November 12, 2024 and up till now, nobody is telling us what happened to him. If we keep quiet, we might become the next victims. The government cannot say it does not have the capacity to know where he is.

In 2021, Obiora Agbasimelo, a governorship aspirant of the Labour Party, was kidnapped while campaigning and he has not been seen to date . Also, a sitting member of the state House of Assembly, Hon Justice Azuka, was kidnapped two months ago and he is still missing", he said.

He said that beside the three prominent people, there have been other individuals in the state, who have remained missing, and nothing was being done to trace them.

Obi added: “I am more particular about the sudden disappearance of Mr Benjamin Ezemma, who is also the Vice Chairman of Dubai Estate, and also known as Big Ben.

We are here to encourage government to find Ben Ezemma. It is Ben today, it may be any one of us tomorrow.

We all did SIM registration, NIN registration and others. What is the use of such data which we left with the federal government? Can’t they use it to find missing people like Ben?

We are urging police, DSS, NSA and other security to find this man. We are expecting that the authorities would have swung into action, without waiting for people like us to report the incident to them.

Let these security agencies use the facilities available to them to track down his kidnappers. Even if it entails monitoring the call log of Ben through his service providers, we can use it to know the kind of person Ben was, and what he has been into and who he has been having dealings with.

I’m not happy with police performance in this matter. Anambra should not be a dumping ground for police officers who are due for retirement, who just come here to make money. If this continues, we may have no option than to protest.”