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Civil rights group, the Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria, has tackled Governor Dave Umahi, over the Ebonyi State Government’s disposition to the case of five missing site engineers in Effium, in the Ohaukwu Local Government Area of the state.
A consultant engineering firm, Nelan Consultants, had on November 3, 2021, deployed five engineers to a road project at Effium in Ebonyi in continuation of routine supervisory works on the Abakiliki Ring Road project but they went missing in the conflict-torn community.
HURIWA, in a statement on Wednesday, said the governor should rather ensure that security agencies rescue the engineers alive and not declare them dead, without their family members seeing their remains.
HURIWA also appealed to the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), to order the Inspector General of Police, Usman Baba to use his office to order search and rescue of the victims.
The group in the statement titled, ‘Alleged killing of site engineers: HURIWA raises objection, demands their immediate release alive by Ebonyi governor’, said Umahi should not stop at sacking two development centre coordinators of Effium community but must ensure the missing engineers are found alive, especially as the vehicle they travelled in has not been found.
The statement was jointly signed by HURIWA National Coordinator, Emmanuel Onwubiko; and the group’s National Media Affairs Director, Zainab Yusuf.
The statement partly read, “The release of the bruised and emotionally destabilising news about the alleged death of the five engineers by the Governor during a security summit organised by Christian Association of Nigeria, Abakiliki chapter has left their families, friends and associates emotionally confused.
“We were in expectation and are still in high expectation that it is the sole and primary responsibility of the government to throw their weight behind the plight of the families and friends of these victims so as to unravel the entire circumstances surrounding this unfortunate incident and most importantly rescue them alive and unharmed.”
“Perceiving a reasonable suspicion that the five missing engineers may have been forced to disappear by a yet to be ascertained individual owing to the fact that the governor only declared them dead and buried without consulting the families and yet failed to produced the burial sites, HURIWA demands the immediate release of the victims alive,” the group added.
