By Nwachukwu Obini

Also in a highly worded petition to the Attorney General and Minister for Justice of the federation as well as Gov. Peter Obi, the centre for victims of Extra-Judicial killings and Torture (CVKT Africa) signed by Rev. Fr. Tony Amarube, who is the Executive Director.

“CVEKT has followed the case right from the origin up to the point where an Nnewi businessman, Chief Pius Ogbuawa was fingered and indeed arrested and detained by the police as a suspected accomplice in the kidnap. Sir, you would also be aware that Chief Ogbuawa later went to court to challenge his arrest and detention over the kidnap case.

“However, it took an Nnewi High Court to declare in a ruling that based on prima facia evidence, Chief Ogbuawa has a case to answer in the kidnap case and therefore should be prosecuted in court. The same Nnewi court at another ruling said that based on the “overwhelming and compelling” evidence before it, Chief Ogbuawa was rightly detained by the police.

“Besides the court ruling, the arrest of Innocent Orji, leader of the kidnap gang opened up another clear and indisputable evidence of the involvement of Chief Ogbuawa n the Nnewi kidnap case. In fact, the gang leader in his confession-in Chief to the police which was made in public and recorded in video stated clearly and unequivocally that it was Chief Ogbuawa who supplied them the names of persons to be kidnapped for ransom in addition to financial and logistic support for the gang. A video clip of that historic confession is still accessible.”

“Sir, we still find reason to sound another alarm arising from the intelligence report at our disposal of another ongoing subtle attempt to manipulate legal procedure in the Nnewi kidnap case in favour of Chief Ogbuawa who recently filed another suit at an Ekwulobia High Court praying the court to absolve him of a murder charge in respect of the Nnewi kidnap case. We have it on good authority that the substantive case file earlier taken over by the Federal Attorney General was recently returned to the Anambra State Attorney General after the then Federal Attorney General and the office of the DPP  had tampered with the original charge in the case file. All these were only aimed at weakening the case against Ogbuawa.

The lingering matter has brought the diplomatic relationship between China and Nigeria into sharp focus.

According to a petition signed by XIANG YI, Managing Director, LINHAI AOLAI Motorcycle fitting Co, Ltd, China , he lamented that:

“We are Chinese nationals resident in Nigeria . We are relations to the above named, who was among the three persons/members of Innoson staff, namely Mr. Sylvester Unigwe and two Chinese nationals, Messrs Feng Shenyi and Eric Niu Guigiang who were violently kidnapped on march 17, 2007, from the premises of Innoson Group in Nnewi, Anambra state from where they were driven blindfolded to a forest in Ekoli Edda in Ebonyi state.

“There, the three were subjected to various degrees of torture, while the kidnappers demanded a ransom of N200 million from the managing director of Innoson, Chief Innocent Chukwuma.
“Later on, the kidnappers accepted the sum of ten million naira (N10,000,000.00) from Chief Chukwuma after which they released one of the three captives in the person of Sylvester Unigwe and held back the other two, both Chinese nationals.

Following the kidnappers refusal to let the foreigners go after several months, a joint team of military and police invaded their forest hideout at Ekoli Edda, Ebonyi state and rescued one of the Chinese while the kidnappers escaped with the second Chinese, in the person of Feng Shyenyi.

On May 29, 2009, two years and two months later, the Nigeria police succeeded in arresting the leader of the of the kidnap gang in the person of one Innocent Orji, alias General who made useful confessions about his gang in the process of which he exposed one Chief Pius Ogbuawa, an Nnewi Business man, as the man behind them in addition to confessing several other crimes committed by his gang. Orji also confirmed the death of Feng Shenyi as a result of severe torture by the gangsters.

Since 2007 and now, the Nnewi kidnap case, involving the death of our kinsman and the court process for the trial of people directly and indirectly involved in the commission of the crime have been at snail pace while those involved are up till now still walking the streets as free men, suggesting a sustained efforts to hijack this weighty criminal case.

As law abiding residents in Nigeria , we had all along kept both patient and faith in the Nigerian legal and judicial system and Nigeria ’s ability to protect and guarantee the safety of the lives and property of Chinese citizens doing lawful business in Nigeria .

At this point in time, however, and given the unimpressive court process, the patience and faith we have hitherto had and demonstrated all along increasingly waned, giving place to great worry and triggering a widespread sense of insecurity among our people in Nigeria .

This is apart from the strong sense of pain and sorrow arising from the judicial delay in the establishment of justice over the death our kinsman.

Our worry and suspicion is that there seems to be an attempt to stifle the course of justice on this matter and in so doing cover up persons involved in the crime.

It is based on this suspicion and fear that we desperately recourse to your organisation for intervention and help us secure justice, equity and rule of law and by so doing restore our confidence and sense of security as Chinese nationals and give us confidence for continued stay in Nigeria.