Where is my Son?

A 70 year old woman, Mrs. Rebecca Nnaji, is in search of her only son, Anthony, who disappeared in mysterious circumstances during the 2003 general elections.

28 year-old Anthony Chidiebere Nnaji was appointed a returning officer for his Justice Party in the April 2003 governorship election in Enugu state. Anthony was, specifically, assigned to carry out his assignment at his Umuewene Ijinike ward in Enugu East council area. (Photo left shows missing Anthony Nnaji)

Alas, not only that Nnaji, the only male child in a family of two, was nowhere to perform this civic, he has remained missing since the day of the governorship election on April 14, 2003.
Mrs. Rebecca Nnaji, Anthony’s 70 year old mother, narrated that Anthony who had, on the eve of the election attended his party’s meeting on the strategies for the poll, briefly returned the following morning (April 15) before finally leaving home for the election.

“Anthony returned home around 6.00am after the meeting, and went out for the main election. I remember warning him to be careful and ensure that he watched events from afar until the exercise was over. But he has not come back till date”, the septuagenarian mother sobbed.

Anthony was said to have, subsequently, headed straight the ward headquarters in the council area to monitor the poll. It was learnt that there were sporadic gunshots in the area around noon that day, as a result of which indigenes and residents scampered in diverse directions for safety of their lives.

Gun totting youths reportedly stormed the election venue in three L300 Mitsubishi buses, and carted away the ballot boxes. The boys, while trying to hijack the ballot boxes, viciously attacked some resistant electoral officers and election monitors at the venue. From afar, Anthony sighted the rampaging boys, and swiftly took some of the electoral materials away while he ran way alongside the frightened electoral officers. The armed youths pursued the fleeing Anthony, and, eventually, trailed him to his house.

In Anthony’s house, the invaders ransacked everywhere, but there was no trace of him. Accusing him of being a member of the Movement for the Actualization of Sovereign States of Biafra (MASSOB), the boys dragged Anthony’s father along as they were leaving. Although they finally set the old man free, they vowed that they would pick up Anthony some other day.

Rebecca’s retort that her son was not a member of MASSOB, but his party’s returning officer, fell on deaf ears of the boys who stuck to their allegation that Anthony and his likes were hired by politicians to disrupt the election

In particular, one of the youths claimed that he and his colleagues were security agents working as a Special Squad, adding that they had information that MASSOB boys were around the area, working with politicians to mar the election.

The young man added that they were, specifically, directed to ‘check the polling unit’, explaining that their duty was to arrest Anthony whom they were informed was a MASSOB activist.

Rebecca recollected, with nostalgia, that the last time she set her eyes on Anthony, his son, was before he went to monitor the election, stating that he is yet to return home since then. She said although the security agents had returned to arrest Anthony at their home on several occasions, he has been nowhere in sight. Rebecca’s fears are that Anthony might have become a victim of circumstance.

However, the ill-fated Anthony’s father, Michael Nnaji, died last year, a situation which Rebecca, his wife, said was not unconnected with the sudden disappearance of Anthony. Rebecca maintained that that, since 2003 Anthony left home, his father suffered different ailments and passed through different complications before his eventual death.

Rebecca laments: “I am now a widow. All I want is for those after my son to spare his life and allow him peace and, that is, if he is still alive. My family has undergone several kinds of torture since the boy’s sudden disappearance”.

She recalled that security agents visited their home sometime last year, and that, on each occasion, they ransacked the whole house in vain for Anthony. They, subsequently, threaten her life. The widow’s suspicion is that the youths (who have been on the trail of Anthony) work for some ‘powerful politicians, and that the allegation of involvement in MASSOB activities was just a ruse to do him (Anthony) in. She reasoned that if the youths were security agents as they claimed, they would have disclosed their identities, and probably arrest Anthony as soon as he showed up.

Mrs. Edna is, therefore, calling on the government of Barrister Sullivan Chime to wade into the matter, with a view to tracing the whereabouts of Anthony, as well as ensuring the security of the lives of the rest of her family members.