• AFTER waiting earnestly for the release of her son, Emeka Kevin Shoremekun, a 19- year-old, 200-level Mass Communication student of Nnamdi Azikiwe University Ifite, Awka from his abductors for over a year, without any success, the mother is now praying for the intervention of the Inspector General of Police, Suleiman Abba in the matter.
The wailing mother, Mrs. Bridget Iwelu, who resides at No. 14 Olorunsogo Street, Shomolu, Lagos State is perturbed that Shoremekun, a university undergraduate was forcibly taken from or lured out of his hostel room for more than a year now without any information from the police.
She is not just crying over the disappearance of the teenager but she is also frenzied with the haphazard investigation carried out by the Nigeria Police Force, Area “C” Command, Awka, Anambra State.
Consequently, she had through her lawyer, Jiti Ogunye, petitioned the Inspector General of Police, urging him to unravel the circumstances surrounding the abduction of the teenager from his hostel at the Nnamdi Azikiwe University Ifite, Awka on June 10, 2013.
Narrating the incidence, Mrs. Iwelu, said Shoremekun, born on April 29, 1994, had on that fateful day called her cell phone, as he usually did, sometimes requesting for airtime but she missed the said call. She later called his cell phone number back but could not get him on phone throughout that day and the following three days.
She said: “ I got worried that something untoward might have happened and then called his girlfriend, Ada, whom I had previously met when I visited Shoremekun in school sometime in 2013, to enquire of her whether she had seen my son and whether he was safe.”
But his girlfriend, Ada, informed Soremekun’s mother that she was in Lokoja, Kogi State, on her way back to school from Abuja, where she had gone on a visit.
“I charged her to help me look for my son, as soon as she got to Awka and, about three hours later, Ada called to inform me that on getting to my son’s room in the Students’ Hostel where he lived, she did not see him but discovered his cell phone was on his bed without the SIM Card, which had been removed; and also his unwashed food plate,” she added.
According to the woman, on finding the situation intolerable, her husband, Michael Iwelu, and his brothers, Augustine Iwelu and Ayo Iwelu went to Awka in search of the teenager, the following day, June 10, 2013.
But on getting to the said hostel, they met his roommates, a boy named Felix and another, who took them to Shoremekun’s supposed best friend in school, and a boy named Shedrack.
Shedrack denied knowing him and in anger, her husband, Michael Iwelu slapped Shedrack and a scuffle ensued, which was later resolved.
Shedrack, according to the mother, continued denying that he knew Shoremekun until when he was dragged to his son’s room, where he confessed that although he knew Emeka Kelvin Shoremekun, he did not know his whereabouts.
“They could not report the case of the ‘disappearance’ of my son to the university authorities because academic activities in the institution were paralyzed as a result of the industrial action embarked upon by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), but reported the case at the Nigeria Police Force, Area “C” Command, Awka, Anambra State, being the nearest Police Station.
Ada and Shedrach were consequently “arrested”, made to write statements and were released. A file was opened in respect of the case at the Area “C” Command, Awka, Anambra State.
“However from that day till October, 2013, there was no clue on the whereabouts of my son only for anonymous callers to inform her brother- in-law, Ayo Iwelu, on phone in the first week of November 2013, that my son was with them but was ill, that they were in camp, which they did not disclose, and that they should be sent some money in order to take care of him.”
According to Mrs. Iwelu, very instructively, the anonymous callers also stated that they learnt that her husband, Michael Iwelu and his brothers, Augustine Iwelu and Ayo Iwelu had beaten up Shedrack when they went to Awka in search of her son, and threatened that if that “ harassment” was ever repeated, they would retaliate ruthlessly against her son.
Ayo Iwelu alerted her and the rest of the family members and they all insisted on speaking with her son before sending money as demanded, but the anonymous callers refused, promising to call back in the evening of that day.
The anonymous callers, she said, failed to call back in the evening of that day, but called back two days, thereafter, to say that her son, Shoremekun was fine, that he had volunteered to follow them, and that they would come back in December, 2013.
“That throughout December 2013, the anonymous callers neither showed up with her son, nor called on phone, as they had done previously and in January, 2014, she and her husband went to the Nigeria Police Force, Area “C” Command, Awka, to find out whether there were new developments or information, and to know the progress being made in the investigation, but they were shocked when the Police told them that they had not taken any further or other steps beyond the initial arrests of Ada and Shadrach and the statements they had obtained from them.
Consequently, she posted large posters of her son, as a “missing” person in Awka, Nnewi and environs, soliciting, therein, any helpful information about him and his whereabouts.
She also caused the National Television Authority (NTA) to broadcast for about three weeks an alert on her missing son, soliciting from members of the public, information that could help her and the Police to locate and find him.
Anxious Mrs. Iwelu is yet to get any information about her son up till now as Emeka Kelvin Shoremekun is still missing and the Police have not unravelled the “ mystery” of the abduction or kidnapping of her son, from his hostel room.
While stressing her concerns with the general state of insecurity in our country, and the enormous challenges being confronted by the law-enforcement and security agencies in tackling the myriad cases of criminal activities in Nigeria, ranging from murders, armed robbery, kidnapping, ritual killings, oil-pipeline vandalism and theft of crude oil and petroleum products, and now the Boko Haram insurgency and that the Police might appear overwhelmed with the enormity of these security problems, Mrs. Iwelu, however, refuses to accept that the Nigeria Police Force, Area “C” Command, Awka, Anambra State is helpless, and can do nothing in her son’s abduction, kidnap or disappearance.
According to her, “Shoremekun had roommates, class mates and “friends,” who can be grilled and thoroughly investigated in order to discover the truth about his disappearance.”
“Profiled cult gangs in the university could be screened to determine whether anyone of them was responsible for the kidnap or abduction.
“The Nnamdi Azikiwe University authorities that acted in loco parentis ought to have been made to answer certain questions.”
“Emeka Kelvin Shoremekun had a cell phone, the call-log of which could be obtained for the purpose of investigation and conducting intense scrutiny of his call and SMS history, in spite of the removal and “disappearance” of the SIM card. “Three months after the disappearance of this undergraduate, some unknown persons called his family on a cell-phone claiming that he was with them, and that “he was fine”.
“That call could be traced to the person or area where the call was made; and voice-matching and comparison could be undertaken. In the circumstances, all these could provide vital clues and leads, but the Police have failed to act.”
She, therefore, through her lawyer, solicits for the assistance of the IGP, since she is not a police institution, parading crime detection and investigation prowess.
“The search for the whereabouts of Master Emeka Kelvin Shoremekun is not as hopeless as the lethargy of the Police would make the matter appear. Emeka Kelvin Shoremekun did not vanish into thin air.”
“He did not fall victim of ritual murderers while wandering on the street. He was taken from a school hostel, a place where we think, without playing police, investigation ought to have started. Unfortunately, beyond the perfunctory and lazy first steps taken by the Police, no further step has been taken by the Police.”
“Sir, the attitude of the Police in Awka to the plight of our client and other members of her family over this matter cannot be right. Even when we know that hundreds of young people have been kidnapped in other parts of our country and have been criminally held for months without rescue, that does not imply that the “isolated” case of Master Emeka Kelvin Shoremekun is too inconsequential to warrant being conscientiously, dedicatedly and diligently pursued.”
“He is a Nigerian that has and should continue to have a full protection of the law, regardless of whether he was kidnapped/abducted alone or along with others. The number ought not to matter. The act itself should generate the requisite law enforcement outrage,” her petition read.
She, therefore, pleaded with the IGP to constitute an Inspector-General Team from the Force Headquarters to take over this case and comprehensively investigate same, with a view to securing the release of her son from where he is being held captive, and bringing his abductors to justice.
“ We reposed so much trust and confidence in the Police. These have waned considerably, but could be revived by a swift action from you.
“ We are, of the strong view, that the authority and power of the Nigeria Police Force have not been fully utilized in finding my son. We are willing, ready and prepared to give the necessary assistance and cooperation to the investigation team that may be constituted to take over this matter, as requested,” she added.
0 Response to "Disquiet over missing undergraduate "
Post a Comment