Odinkalu: Soludo’s security adviser has unanswered posers over killing of Igwe, wife

Former Chairman of the Anambra State Truth, Justice and Peace Commission, Professor Chidi Odinkalu, has said Ken Emeakayi, now Special Adviser on Security to the Anambra State Governor, Chukwuma Soludo, has questions to answer over the unresolved killing of lawyer and former Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) Chairman in Onitsha, Barnabas Igwe, and his wife, Abigail.

Odinkalu, a former chairman of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), made the disclosure during an online interview with Noble Nigeria, a digital media platform, while recounting the commission’s investigation into the couple’s assassination.

He said the commission’s report, which he personally delivered to the Anambra State Government in March 2024, recommended that the matter involving Emeakayi and those he allegedly commanded be reopened. The killing of the Igwes remains one of Nigeria’s most notorious unresolved political assassinations. The couple, both lawyers, was killed in Onitsha on September 1, 2002, shortly after returning from the NBA national conference in Ibadan.

Barnabas, who was chairman of the NBA Onitsha branch, had been an outspoken critic of the administration of then Governor Chinwoke Mbadinuju, particularly over the failure of the state government to pay workers’ salaries. Human Rights Watch subsequently said there was strong and credible evidence that the killing was politically motivated. According to Odinkalu, the attack was carried out by elements of the Bakassi Boys operating under the authority of Emeakayi, who was then associated with the security structure of the state government.

He said the records reviewed by the Truth, Justice and Peace Commission identified Emeakayi as the person who led the operation. Odinkalu further said Abigail was pregnant when she was killed.

“Ken Emeakayi on the basis of the report of the Truth, Justice and Peace Commission, has questions that remain unanswered,” Odinkalu, said. “And that, in my view, is a blot on the record of Governor Soludo,” he added.

Odinkalu said the commission revisited the case after Soludo asked it to investigate the state’s troubled history, including unresolved killings.

He said earlier efforts to prosecute Emeakayi had followed his arrest and detention around 2006 on a murder charge, but the case was derailed after the court handling the matter was reportedly sacked and a prison break resulted in his release.