As incidents of kidnapping continue unabated in parts of the country without any solution in sight, more than 500 Chinese nationals working as engineers and technicians in Innoson Motor Assembly Plant at Nnewi Anambra State, and those at flat sheet plant Emene industrial Layout, Enugu, Enugu State, have threatened to leave Nigeria emasse if the suspects apprehended by men of the Anambra state police command over their alleged involvement in the kidnapping and killing of their brother, Mr. Feng Shyenyi, were not duly prosecuted..<\/p>\n
The Chinese Nationals who made the declaration, Friday while speaking to newsmen at the office of the Center for Victims of Extra-Judicial killings and Torture (CVEKT Africa) on Edinburgh Road, Enugu,\u00a0through their spokesman, Mr Tang Tao,\u00a0regretted that between 2007 and now, some of the people directly and indirectly involved in the kidnapping and killing of their compatriot are still working the streets as free men.<\/p>\n
They noted that if those involved were not punished according to the law of the land, and if\u00a0 they leave the country emasse the over N250 million Innoson Motor\u00a0 Assembly plant at Nnewi, would collapse, thereby making the over 300 staff at the plant jobless.<\/p>\n
This, they went on , would in no small measure simultaneously worsen the already bad economy of the state and that of the federal government.<\/p>\n
The aggrieved Chinese nationals therefore called on both\u00a0 the Enugu and Anambra State governments, \u00a0the Federal Government and the Attorney-General of\u00a0 the Federation to ensure that all those involved in the kidnapping and\u00a0 killing of their colleague and brothers, Mr Shyenyi, were brought\u00a0 to book to serve as deterrent\u00a0 to others.<\/p>\n
This, they reasoned, is the only sure way of assuring them of their safety in Nigeria, describing the kidnapping and subsequent killing of their brother as \u201cvery unfortunate\u201d.<\/p>\n
Speaking to newsmen later, the Executive Director, Center for Victims of Extra-Judicial killings and Torture (CVEKT Africa) Rev. Fr. Tony Amarube, noted May 29, this year, turned out to be a \u201cwatershed\u201d in the kidnap saga.<\/p>\n
His words.\u00a0 \u201cOn this day, exactly, two years and two months after the kidnap event, the\u00a0 leader of the gang, Innocent Orji, alias \u201cGeneral\u201d was apprehended by the Anambra State police and he has confirmed\u00a0 the death and burial\u00a0 of the second Chinese whose corpse has recently been exhumed and recovered by police.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rev. Fr. Amarube recalled\u00a0 that on March 17, 2007, two Chinese nationals and one indigenous staff of\u00a0 Innoson group, Nnewi, Anambra State were kidnapped at the premises of Innoson Motor\u00a0 Assembly plant by a group of criminals \u201coperating under the guise of Movement for the Actualization of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB).<\/p>\n
According to him, confirmed reports have it that the three members of staff of\u00a0\u00a0 Innoson Group were kidnapped and\u00a0 driven blindfolded to an unknown destination\u00a0 where\u00a0 they were\u00a0 subjected to various degrees of torture, adding, \u201cInfact, on a particular day, some of them almost gave up the\u00a0 ghost but\u00a0 for God.\u201d.<\/p>\n
The kidnappers, he alleged, demanded millions of naira ransom for the release of the indigenous employee, pointing out\u00a0 that after the kidnappers subsequently accepted\u00a0 to collect N10 million, they agreed to release him, while they held back\u00a0 the other two Chinese nationals.<\/p>\n
\u201cFollowing the refusal by the kidnappers to let the foreigners go after\u00a0 several months, a joint team of the military invaded their forest hideout at \u2018Ekoli Edda\u2019, Ebonyi State and rescued one of the Chinese while the hoodlums escaped with the second Chinese.<\/p>\n
Using the forum to commend\u00a0 the Nigeria Police, Anambra State Command in particular for the major breakthrough Rev.. Fr. Amarube further congratulated them for their demonstration of commitment and sincerity of purpose and enjoined them not to relent.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur worry is that this dastardly act and those behind it may be swept under the carpet, given that between 2007 and\u00a0 now, some of the people directly and indirectly involved in the commission of this crime were\u00a0 still working\u00a0 the streets free men even as there seems to be sustained efforts to hijack this weighty criminal case. Even charging\u00a0 those arrested\u00a0 by the police to court was reluctantly done, and the pace of the dispensation can better be described as snail pace. We understand the gang leader , Innocent\u00a0 Orji\u00a0 has\u00a0 made useful confessions, including exposing a popular\u00a0 Nnewi based businessman as the man behind them, in addition to confessing several\u00a0 other crimes he has committed with his gang.<\/p>\n
Also in a petition to the Centre for the Victims of Extra Judicial Killings and Torture\u00a0 CVEKT, dated\u00a0 July 7, 2009, one of the kidnap victims, Mr Sylvester\u00a0 Unigwe,called on the center to intervene , as kidnapping\u00a0 has become a daily event in\u00a0 \u201cour state.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
As incidents of kidnapping continue unabated in parts of the country without any solution in sight, more than 500 Chinese nationals working as engineers and technicians in Innoson Motor Assembly Plant at Nnewi Anambra State, and those at flat sheet plant Emene industrial Layout, Enugu, Enugu State, have threatened to leave Nigeria emasse if the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":34,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1153","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-south-east"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1153","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/34"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1153"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1153\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1153"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1153"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1153"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}