NGO seeks forensic evaluation of kidnapped NELAN engineers in Ebonyi

The International Society for Civil Liberties and Rule of Law (Intersociety) has called for a forensic evaluation of the abduction of engineers working with NELAN, a consultant engineering firm in Ebonyi State.

Five engineers, working with the Enugu-based consultant engineering firm, were reported missing on November 3 after they were deployed to a road project at Effium in Ebonyi State in continuation of routine supervisory works.

According to reports, the victims were identified as Mr Nelson Onyemeh, Mr Stanley Nwazulum, Mr Ernest Edeani, Mr IK Ejiofor, and Mr Samuel Aneke, were scheduled to have a meeting with one Mr Ken Okeh at 3 p.m. same date after the site visit to discuss some accommodation issues.

They were said to have travelled from Enugu to Effium with the project vehicle, Toyota Hilux with registration number ERR 001 EB and had arrived at Effium about 2 p.m. ahead of the scheduled meeting. That was the last time they were heard from or seen.

In a statement, the Board Chairman of the Intersociety, Mr Emeka Umeagbalasi, the NGO said that there had never been reports of hostility and violence by the host community towards the construction and consultancy firms handling the project.

Umeagbalasi said that the abduction and disappearance of the five civil engineers were well thought out and conceived in the guilty act and guilty mind which is to say that it was never accidental or ‘mob action’ based abduction and disappearance.

“The culprits did not also circumstantially act alone or act outside the remote knowledge or complicity of the state actor authorities,” he said, adding that “further detailed investigations will throw more light.”

He said that when the AfDB Ebonyi Ring Road Project was about to start, it was greeted with mysterious deaths including the “death in a fatal automobile accident along Enugu-Abakiliki Road of the State Commissioner for Works, Mr Nwaeze.

“The commissioner, before he was declared dead, was also the Chairman of the Ebonyi State Project Implementation Unit for the said AfDB financed Ring Road Projects,” he said.