The House of Representatives Committee on Diaspora are raising eyebrows over the circumstances surrounding the death of a Nigerian, Godswill Udechukwu who was serving a life jail term in a prison in Dublin, the Republic of Ireland.
Wednesday, the Chairman of the committee, Mrs. Abike Dabiri-Erewa was taken aback after she was briefed by spokesperson of the family of the deceased, Mr. Kennedy Monye that the late Udechukwu, who was a technician by training, was allegedly murdered by 30 inmates in a Dublin prison on April 6, 2013.
Dabiri-Erewa, who empathised with the family , assured that she would take up the issue on behalf of the House of Representatives.
Flanked by members of the committee who listened to Mr Monye with rapt attention, she noted: “This is another pathetic case of another Nigerian battered to death in an Irish prison. We will not rush into judgment on this matter because this is not the first time such issue has been brought to our notice.”
“But as a people we cannot sit and watch our fellow compatriots being killed without seeking for justice, we will see how the case can be re-visited. This is not the first time this dastardly act is happening in Dublin. For us, if we don’t stand up and demand for justice, we won’t get it.”
While commiserating with the family of the deceased, she promised to liaise with the ambassadors of both Nigeria and Ireland to unearth the truth surrounding the demise of the deceased in controversial circumstances.
Chris Kato Aneke representing Anambra East/West federal constituency said the killing of Udechukwu was a condemnable act adding such extra judicial killing is worth probing into by the Nigerian authorities.
Monye, who spoke on behalf of the deceased family accused the authorities in Dublin of complicity in the dastardly murder of his brother by fellow inmates.
He claimed that Udewchucku was severally stabbed by the inmates and was left unattended to by officials of the prison until he passed on at the Saint James hospital.
He said: “How did prison inmates get knives and sharp objects used to stab my brother if there was no connivance with the authorities? Even before he was sentenced to life imprisonment over the murder of his wife, the Irish press had already condemned him, describing him as a monster.”
Displaying the various publications that had already labelled Udechuckwu as a murderer even before his conviction before members of the committee to buttress his assertions, he continued: “How could my brother get a fair trial after all these publications and now they have killed him.
All we want is for the Irish government to bring the perpetrators of this heinous act to book. We equally want the son of our brother Master Jaydin released to us and the corpse of Udechukwu. “
He claimed that Udechukwu was actually in the UK when his wife was murdered adding that security agents in Dublin who had an axe to grind with the deceased contrived the evidence used against him that secured his conviction.
Claiming that several attempts to secure the corpse of Udechuckwu for burial in Nigeria had met the brick wall, he said he had every reason to believe that the hospital authorities in Dublin in liaison with the coroner must have engaged in a sinister deal to cover up the actual cause of Udechukwu’s death which could come in handy to seek redress in the law courts
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