THE COMPARISON INVOLVING EMEKA UGWUONYE

When in the past someone compared Emeka Ugwuonye with Gani Fawehinmi, one or two people misunderstood the message. But in truth, no two persons can be exactly the same in all areas. But if there is anything, even one thing, similar between the two, that will be a legitimate basis for comparison.

There is one thing common between Emeka and Gani, which is the purpose of this post, even though the outcome of that similarity shows a contrast. So, the title of this post should have been “Comparison and Contrast” between the two men.

In 1987 or thereabout, a prominent journalist known as Dele Giwa was killed by a letter bomb. Nobody was sure who sent the letter bomb that killed Giwa. However, before he received the letter bomb, Dele Giwa had complained to a lawyer, (Gani) that he received a threat from some military officers serving directly under the Military Head of State, General Babangida. Gani understood from that complaint that Babangida might have a motive to kill Dele Giwa.

So, when the bomb killed Giwa, Gani Fawehinmi suspected that Babangida did it. He did what every good lawyer would do – He carried out his investigation into the matter and concluded that two military officers working for Babangida killed Dele Giwa by letter bomb.  Gani called for investigation by the police, but nothing meaningful came from it. Gani then openly accused Colonel Togun and Colonel Akilu of killing Giwa on the orders of their boss, Babangida. Gani made his accusation on every newspaper and repeated it for many years till his natural death, more than 20 years afterwards. In his accusations, Gani offered theories of how Babangida and his boys killed Dele Giwa and why they killed him (ie, the motive behind the killing).

General Babangida’s government repeatedly harassed Gani and arrested and detained him many times over Dele Giwa matter. But there was one thing that Babangida never did. He never turned around to accuse Gani of being the one that killed Dele Giwa.

Now, we come to Emeka Ugwuonye. Almost 30 years after the death of Dele Giwa, a woman based in Abuja, known as Charity Aiyedegbon, aka Chacha, disappeared without a trace. About one month after her disappearance, a relative of Chacha and many of Chachas friend contacted Emeka Ugwuonye, a lawyer and human right activists, and asked for help in finding Chacha. Again, like Gabi 30 years previously, Emeka conducted an investigation into what could have happened to the missing lady. Emeka examined social media posts  by the lady stating that her husband was planning to kill her. Emeka Ugwuonye accused Chcha’s husband of involvement in whatever happened to Chacha.

In the course of his investigation into what happened to Chacha, Emeka learned of a headless body that was found by the police around the time of Chacha’s disappearance. Emeka obtained the picture of the body. Emeka concluded that the body must be that of Chacha. Emeka did everything to get the police to investigate Chacha’s husband for any involvement in her death. The police failed. Indeed, for 2 years the police insisted that the body found was not Chacha’s body. Instead the police was working to exornorate Chacha’s husband.

Frustrated by the failure of the police to conduct a full and transparent investigation of Chacha’s death, Emeka accused the police of incompetence and ineptitude. The police got upset and decided to accuse Emeka Ugwuonye of being the one that killed Chacha.

There is a similarity between Gani and Emeka in their determination to solve a murder that the police wanted to cover up. There is a similarity in their effort to have some connected people investigated but the police wanted to shield them. However, there is a difference in outcome. As dictatorial as Babangida’s regime night have been, it was not as corrupt and daft. That regume knew it would be an extreme idea to turn around and accuse Giwa of killing the person he was fighting for. In Emeka’s case, the IGP Ibrahim Idris police had no sense of proportion and no sense of limits when it comes to corruption.

I hope that the above analysis will help you understand the case of Emeka Ugwuonye.

And by the way, who are those suggesting that Emeka Ugwuonye’s ability to offer ‘accurate’ theories of what could have happened to Chacha meant he had foreknowledge of it? They are only those working for or with David Aiyedegbon or some petty people with personal frustration with DPA.