Some Chinese nationals, on Friday July 10, in Enugu, threatened to flee Nigeria in the absence of a determined effort by authorities to guarantee their safety.
The Chinese threat, ostensibly, derives from the rising wave of kidnap across the country in which one of them, Feng Sheng Yi, a staff of Innoson Industrial and Technical Company, fell victim on March 17, 2007. (Pictures left, Chief Pius Ogbuawa; Right, Chief Innocent Chukwuma)
The protesting Chinese nationals recalled the recent confession of Innocent Orji, a kidnap baron, to the effect that Sheng Yi, their kinsman, abducted alongside one other Chinese and
a Nigerian, was killed and buried in a shallow grave in Owutu Eda, Afikpo South Local Government Area of Ebonyi state. The kidnap incident took place in Nnewi motor assembly complex of Chief Innocent Chukwuma (alias Innoson), an industrialist.
But the exodus threat by Chinese expatriate workers continues to raise dusts of controversies, as well as mixed feelings and reactions in some quarters across the country.
In the opinion of a human rights organization, Conscience Group, “The threat by some Chinese of leaving the country in droves is neither here nor there. ‘Death’, like William Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar, is an inevitable end which will come when it will’. It is unarguable that death had, in one way or the other, befallen Nigerians living in China. And China neither burnt nor ceased to exist as a country. Misfortune is misfortune everywhere, and no man bears sorrow better, whether a Nigerian or a Chinese”.
The group, in a statement dated July 13, 2009, and signed by Williams Onukwudo, National Coordinator, laments the outrageous incidence of kidnap in Nigeria, harping that it is only reasonable to look at the abduction and subsequent death of the Chinese national as one of those misfortunes of life.
Says the Group: “It is obvious that many Nigerians, great and small, had, like Sheng Yi, at various times, died in the hands of kidnappers, and affected families had always borne the irreparable losses with fortitude. Nigerians, therefore, condole with the Chinese over the pathetic death of Sheng Yi, and ask God to grant his soul eternal rest in Paradise’”.
Believing that the indictment of Ogbuawa was at the center of the seeming instigated Chinese exodus threat, the body, in a statement entitled: ‘Ogbuawa, Innoson Kidnap Saga: Who Actually Killed the Chinese National?’, maintains that a stoical approach to Sheng Yi’s death is more imperative than ‘the on-going Innocent Chukwuma-induced harassment and intimidation of Ogbuawa over a crime he knew nothing about’, adding, “The point is that if not for the “Nail Ogbuawa Project’ of the Chukwumas, why would any sane person look in his direction concerning the death of a Chinese, Sheng Yi?”
The organization’s statement was profuse with posers: “Has anyone cared to ask why Innoson refused to pay up the N10 million to secure the release of this cherished Chinese expatriate staff of his, Sheng Yi? If Innoson had so much love and affection for Sheng Yi, as he makes Nigerians believe, why did he prefer to secure the release of only his brother, Unigwe, abandoning the two Chinese nationals? Put differently, why didn’t Innoson leave Unigwe behind, and secure the release of the Chinese nationals first?”
It is noted that the most dramatized aspect of Innocent Orji’s confession was his futile attempt to implicate Ogbuawa in his gang’s kidnap crime. Orji, it would be recalled, had, in the controversial confession, narrated how, as then a MASSOB group, someone he identified as Ikechukwu brought the sum of N400, 000.00 to his gang in their forest hide-out, purporting the money to have come from Chief Ogbuawa. Orji’s confession included, among other things, that, on realizing that the money in question was N1 million (instead of the N400, 000.00), his kidnap gang went after Chief Ogbuawa, captured him and brought him to their camp for confirmation of the actual sum of money he gave to them.
While the rest of Orji’s confession appear consigned to Conscience Group insists on x-raying the circumstance(s) surrounding Sheng Yi, especially, in the face of the over-bloated publicity that has characterized his death in captivity in newspapers and magazines across the country. Chukwuma, according to media reports, lamented that the entire kidnap saga has cost his company a fortune, and set his motor assembly business backwards, adding that he did everything possible to save the Chinese nationals from the clutches of the kidnappers.
But the Conscience Group, to this effect, argues that a lot of information have been swept under the carpet in the whole kidnap saga.
The group accuses Innoson of having spent over N20 million in procuring anti-Ogbuawa newspaper and magazine reports across the country. This, it states, is in addition to bribes and other inducements which Chukwuma allegedly continually gives to the police-all targeted at destroying Chief Ogbuawa.
“Because memories could be short, it is apt, at this juncture, to refresh the minds of well-meaning Nigerians that Innocent Chukwuma paid N10 million out of the N20 million ransom demanded by the kidnappers for the release of only Unigwe, his brother. Innoson promised to, subsequently, send the kidnappers another N10 million to release the two Chinese nationals, including Sheng Yi, but he never did. Nigerians have been denied this information that Innocent Chukwuma abandoned the ill-fated Chinese expatriate workers in the camp of the kidnappers, simply because he refused to pay up the remaining N10 million. The two Chinese expatriates, therefore, remained with the kidnappers in their forest base until the military operation which led to the rescue of one of them. Sheng Yi had, after the rescue operation, died in the hands of the kidnappers. What a selfish attitude!” the organization quizzes.
It wonders why Chukwuma had to secure the release of his brother, Unigwe (popularly called Isiocha) in preference for the two Chinese nationals, adding that Innoson had even boasted that that there were many jobless Chinese in China, and, as such, if the kidnappers killed his two Chinese workers, he would readily employ as many other Chinese as he wished. The organization thus observes that the foregoing buttresses the fact that Innoson made virtually no attempt to save Sheng Yi’s life?
There is yet another germane point to the logic of Sheng Yi’s death. While the kidnap gang was still holding his three staff, Innoson allegedly arrested nine months pregnant wife of Innocent Orji, the kidnap lynchpin, his aged mother and sisters. Conscience Group describes the offensive against the over three years subsequent detention of the kidnap kingpin’s family members at that point in time as a nasty idea!, contending: “Wouldn’t Innoson have, first, secured the release of the victims before the arrest and the military operation? Supposing deadly Innocent Orji had killed all the three staff of Innoson as a revenge for the arrest of his pregnant wife and other family members? Although one is not opposed to the arrest and the military operation, there is no doubt that the timing of the actions was a blunder, and devoid of sound reasoning.”
It is recalled that when Ogbuawa was kidnapped, his family members were advised not to send any ransom to the bandits or involve the police, but the family members ignored this piece of advice because, according to them, they knew the possible disastrous consequences of refusing to pay the ransom. In the reasoning of his family members, Ogbuawa could have been killed by the kidnappers! It, also, dawned on many supporters of Ogbuawa that the millionaire ‘God is Good Motors’, an earlier kidnap victim, had died because his family members involved the police when sending the ransom to the kidnappers.
It is consequent upon this logic that an Nnewi based business man, Chief Henry Onwudike, posed: “What, then, was in the mind of Innocent Chukwuma when, knowing very well that the lives of his staff, including Sheng Yi, were in danger, he went about making arrests of the family members of the kidnap lynchpin that had custody of them (his staff)?”
Onwudike alleges that there exists a coalition of evil plots, championed by Innoson, against Ogbuawa because of his (Ogbuawa)’s business successes in Nnewi and beyond.
And various instances of alleged boasts by Innoson’s family members of plans mapped out to ‘finish up’ Ogbuawa seem to cast some insights into the whole scenario.
For instance, one of Innoson’s brothers, a proprietor of a popular Football Team, recently reportedly boasted to one lawyer that they have spent N300 million to cripple Ogbuawa over this matter, as well as mapped out another N200 million for the ‘Nail Ogbuawa Project’. The family member was said to have told the lawyer that Ogbuawa should know that, aside the Chukwumas, there are many other people pursuing Ogbuawa. In fact, this Chukwuma’s brother boasted that there are up to 1000 people after the life of the business giant, Ogbuawa.
To this effect, Conscience Group asks: “If the Chukwuma family and their cohorts have mapped out N500 million for Ogbuawa to rotten and die in prison custody, why did they not spend just an additional N10 million to save the life of Sheng Yi? Many Nigerians are yet to know that Innocent Chukwuma’s name is in the Guinness Book of Records for his staff, including the Chinese nationals, being the longest serving hostages in the history of hostage-taking in Nigeria so far.”
The Group inquires further into the rationale behind the long stay of the Chinese in the gulag of the kidnap gang, posing: “Was Innoson’s inability to have paid up the N20 million ransom borne out of lack of funds to do so or what? Would Sheng Yi have died in captivity if Innocent Chukwuma had acted fast to secure his freedom? If Innoson has this celebrated love and respect for the lives and rights of his workers, why did he allow his hostage staff to spend 25 days in the vicious grip of the kidnappers before going for their release?”
In the face of these posers, who, then, is the actual killer of the Chinese national, Sheng Yi? Innocent Chukwuma, Sheng Yi‘s employer who abandoned him in the cruel hands of the kidnap gang because of N10 million? Or, Chief Pius Ogbuawa, who had no business with the Chinese, and had hardly come out of his own ordeals with the kidnappers?
Supporters of Ogbuawa insist that it is unfair for innoson to continue to sponsor the indictment of Ogbuawa in the kidnap of his staff, even when Ogbuawa himself had earlier fell victim to the same gang before Innoson’s staff?
There have been reports that, following deadly threats on Ogbuawa by Chukwuma arising from seer business conflicts, an armed gang stormed Ogbuawa’s Nnewi residence on July 9, 2006 to, ostensibly, assassinate him. This business misunderstanding had reportedly arisen from Ogbuawa’s court victory against Chukwuma in a matter involving Innoson’s alleged piracy of his products (motorcycle spare parts).
Although the assassins narrowly missed Ogbuawa, they went after his wife and jeep. While the assailants hauled the hapless woman out of the vehicle at Adazi Ani area of Anambra state, Ogbuawa’s jeep was dumped in front of the Central Police Station (CPS) in Enugu metropolis. Enugu is, incidentally, the city of residence Innoson!
That is not all. Shortly after the failed assassination of Ogbuawa, he (Ogbuawa) was, in January 2007, kidnapped, possibly, by the same deadly gang right inside the premises of a Church he pastors. The kidnappers and their sponsor dared God who said, ‘Touch not my Anointed and do my Prophet no harm’, abducted Ogbuawa and, subsequently, subjected him to degrading and inhuman treatments for three whole days before he bought his freedom with a whopping N20 million. Ogbuawa’s family and friends rallied round and mobilized N20 million as ransom for his release, a situation which led to Conscience Group wonder why it is the same Ogbuawa ‘that Chukwuma and his fellow ‘Nnewi anti-stranger group’ spend restless days and sleepless nights to rope into the messy crime of kidnap’.
“The truism that Ogbuawa is just being persecuted for his business successes in Nnewi (where Innoson and his ilk regard him as a stranger) is evident. It will be recalled that the deadly criminal, Innocent Orji, in his so-called advertised confession, mentioned Kotec as one of the names Ogbuawa gave his gang for kidnap. But on getting to Abuja, and discovering that Kotec (a non-Nnewi indigene) will not fit into their conspiracy against Ogbuawa, Innoson changed the name Kotec to Cutix (a fellow Nnewi man)”, the group asserts.
The Group endorses the protest, but urges the protesting Chinese nationals and, indeed, their government, to appropriately direct their anger at Chukwuma over his abandonment of their kinsmen, including Sheng Yi, in prison custody. “Except the Chinese are more interested in chasing shadows, Ogbuawa never had a hand in their brother’s death. Sheng Yi was abandoned to die in captivity by Innocent Chukwuma, his employer”, Conscience Group submits.
The group, also, warns against a rumored threat by the Police Inspector-General, Mr. Mike Okiro, to the effect that he would order the arrest and detention of Ogbuawa and Chief Ralph Uwazuruike, leader of Movement for the Actualization of Sovereign State of Biafra (BIAFRA), for alleged sponsoring of kidnap in Igboland.
“For now, we regard this as mere rumor, because IG Mike Okiro, cannot afford such a summersault as the Chief Security Officer of Nigeria. For whatever it is worth, this threat, if it exists, is a joke taken too far by Okiro, for the two prominent Ndigbo, Uwazuruike and Ogbuawa, have never, in their lives, been associated with violence, but peaceful approach towards the resolution of issues around them”, it states.
The question remains: ‘When will this Ogbuawa, Innoson kidnap saga end?’ The answer, indeed, lies in the womb of time.
Dr. (Mrs.) Chinyere Okafor, an Enugu based medical expert, was in far away United States when a friend of hers, last year, October 6, rang her up from Nigeria to inquire whether she had read the day’s newspaper publications. (Picture left shows Ogbonna Onovo,Nigeria's Police Inspector-General)
