The family of Desmond Nunugwo, Chief Protocol Officer of the Minister of State for Defence, has insisted that the death of the civil servant resulted from torture which he was subjected to, by the operatives of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
The family while reacting to the response it got from the office of the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF) and Minister of Justice, informed that, the EFCC had not been carrying the family members along, during the course of its investigation into the cause of Nunugwo’s death.
In the letter signed by the Director of Public Prosecution (DPP), Mohammed Umar, marked DPPA/REQ/245/16, and titled “Re: Demand for justice over the death of Desmond Nunugwo by operatives of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission”, the DPP had urged the family to cooperate with authorities of the National Hospital to enable them carry out a post mortem examination on the deceased.
The DPP had in the letter addressed to Paul Edeh of Raw Gold partners, legal counsel to the deceased family, said that pursuant to the proposed post mortem, a meeting was held on August 29, 2016 where “all parties were present except for the family of the deceased, which necessitated the postponement of the meeting to September 5, 2016”.
However, 83 days since after the deceased was confirmed dead, Paul Edeh, legal representative of the family insisted that the family was never at anytime invited for such meeting.
“We were informed in the letter about a meeting that was held at the National Hospital by stakeholders in the matter, we were not told who the stakeholders are without the family, and we have been told that a further meeting has been called on September 5, 2016, it will interest you to know that sometime last week, the EFCC called the former lawyer of the family and informed him that they were calling a meeting of the stakeholders at the National Hospital.
“We will wait for a formal letter from the Police and the DSS so that we have a sense of direction, if all preliminaries has been sorted out, and autopsy is carried out, the family is ready anytime anyday, but for the meeting called on the fifth, we want to be sure of who is calling that meeting, is it the office of the AGF, Police or DSS, when we are sure that the right authority that we have confidence in has been mandated by the AGF, then we will forge ahead with the entire process.
“The family is ready to cooperate throughout the investigation, because all they are out for is for justice to take its course, because for him to have died six hours after he was arrested, while he was hale and hearty, that means he was tortured to death and the circumstances surrounding his arrest wherein he was picked up from his former lawyer’s office, manhandled by the operatives of EFCC, it is one that we believe that a holistic investigation should be done”, Edeh said.
Similarly, Susanne, wife of the deceased maintained her husband’s innocent to the allegations levelled against him, stating that the EFCC killed her husband.
“I am shocked at what we have been told by the AGF because the family was not invited for any meeting as stated on August 29, there was no phone call or any letter to that effect, from the manner everything is going, it is obvious that they are trying to conceal the truth about what happened. If not, I do not see why it is so difficult for the EFCC or police to come out and address the family members and call the lawyer from whose office my husband was picked up”, she said.
The deceased was said to have died in the custody of the EFCC on June 9, 2016, having being arrested at the office of his former lawyer, sequel to a petition written by one Uloma, his business associate with whom he did a N91 million transaction with, even though it was discovered that the deceased did not receive any money from the transaction.
