September 10, (THEWILL) – Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria, (HURIWA) has highlighted that the saying “injustice done to one is an injustice to all” should forcefully apply to the pathetic case of official neglect and failure to activate forensic mechanisms to thoroughly investigate circumstances and individuals directly responsible for the gruesome murder of the Anambra lady identified as Chinyere Awuda.
According to the rights group, her corpse was found near an abandoned swimming pool on the premises of a popular hotel in Awka and was buried on Saturday, September 9, in Awuda, Nnobi community in Idemili South Local Government Area of Anambra State.
HURIWA faulted what It called a catastrophic collapse of mechanisms of social and criminal justice to describe the fact that the Anambra State Government allowed the State Police Command to conceal the real facts behind this despicable crime against humanity.
HURIWA, in a statement by its National Coordinator, Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko, regrettably recalled that the 30-year-old deceased, a graduate of Nnamdi Azikiwe University, died on July 15 after she was allegedly beaten to death for allegedly picking up money being sprayed during a birthday party at the hotel.
The rights group said the Anambra State Governor, Prof. Chukwuma Charles Soludo, should ask himself the hard question of why his administration has failed to find definitive justice for the deceased.
HURIWA said: “Our members are indeed in shock that in this 21st century, the Anambra State Police Command could be allowed to edit the close circuit television evidence that captured the exact characters who murdered this Anambra girl only because she was from a lowly financial background.
“We sympathise with the parents of the deceased, Mr and Mrs Patrick Awuda, who could not hold back tears lamenting the death of their daughter, saying that their sadness was that their daughter died an “undeserved death”.
HURIWA recalled that the parents of the deceased had affirmed that “She was our fifth child. The news of her sudden death came to us as a rude shock. We never expected that her promising life with a bright future would be cut short in such a manner. We heard that she was beaten to death by a group of boys and her corpse was found near an abandoned swimming pool in the hotel where she went with her friends to celebrate someone’s birthday.”
The rights group said it is significant that her parents stated clearly that “although the police said autopsy proved she drowned, we believe she was killed as they have refused to release the CCTV footage of the incident. What can we do? We have left vengeance to God. We are going to miss our loving and caring daughter.”
“We in HURIWA are disappointed that such a despicable crime of murder of such a young girl can happen in our time and age and the Anambra State Governor couldn’t take determined action to ensure that the exact characters who murdered this girl were found, prosecuted and punished in line with the principle of rule of law.
“HURIWA is, therefore, demanding that the Anambra State Government should redeem her image by doing everything possible to round up those who killed this girl and dumped her remains in a swimming pool. The State Government has already allowed both the police and forces interested in the murder case to cover up the complete details of the CCTV footage of the actual characters and circumstances that led to this girl’s callous, gruesome and primitive execution in the identified hotel environment.”
