In the Nsukka Local Government Area of Enugu State, the residents of Ameze Owerre, Umabor community, have found the corpse of their kinsman Israel Ugwuanyi, who passed away in Lagos.
The gunmen who took Ugwuanyi’s body also abducted all of his family members and the driver who was taking his body to Nsukka on Sunday night for burial rites.
The event took place in the Umuoka hamlet of the Udi Local Government Area along 9th Mile Road.
The deceased and other family members kept captive were the subject of a ransom demand of ₦50 million made by the kidnappers.
However, Ugwuanyi’s body was found in a woodland close to 9th Mile Corner two days later.
According to reports, soldiers searching the forest on Tuesday morning discovered the body and attempted to take it to a local police station so that it could be placed in the morgue, but the police turned them around.
A family member said that one of the soldiers had seen the phone of one of the kidnapped victims, named Sunday, and called a number on the contact list.
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“We were running about seeking help on how to get the corpse and our other brothers released from captivity when the number called.
“It turned out to be a soldier and he told us how they found the corpse. He told us to come to the police station at 9th Mile where they would hand over the corpse to be deposited to the morgue.
“But as we headed to Enugu to meet them, the army man called again that the police rejected the corpse. We pleaded with them to help us deposit it to any nearby mortuary so that we will meet them there,” the source said.
He claimed that because Ugwuanyi’s body was already decaying, the family and community chose to bury him as soon as it was recovered.
According to the source, they have not been able to raise the money that the kidnappers have requested on the whereabouts of individuals who were abducted along with the corpse.
“You are aware of the current state of affairs in the nation. When this happened, the family and our people in Lagos spent a great deal of money during Israel’s illness, and all we were waiting for was the corpse to arrive so that it could be buried,” he stated.
