By PAMELA EBOH, Awka

A human rights activist, Comrade Osita Obi, has decried the increasing spate of missing people in Anambra State, saying that a number of prominent citizens of the state have been missing for some time now, with nothing done about it.

Obi, addressing a press conference in Awka on Tuesday, said that the development is becoming almost like a norm for people to mysteriously disappear in the state with no trace, while life continues as if nothing happened.

He said: “Besides persons who have fallen victim to kidnappers and who were never found, there have been three prominent individuals in the state, who have remained missing, and nothing is being done to trace them.

“A prominent businessman, Mr Benjamin Ezemma, House of Assembly member, Hon Justice Azuka and candidate of Labour Party in the Anambra 2021 governorship election, Mr Obiora Agbasimalo. All of them have not been seen afterwards.

“I am more particular about the sudden disappearance of Mr Benjamin Ezemma, who is also the Vice Chairman of Dubai Estate, and also known as Big Ben. He disappeared on November 12 and has not been seen since then.

“We are here to encourage government to find Ben Ezemma. It is Ben today, it may be any one of us tomorrow. We know that government has the capacity to find this man. What is the Federal Government doing about this?

“We all did SIM registration, NIN registration and others, what is the use of such data which we left with the federal government, can’t they use it to find missing people like Ben?

“While urging police, DSS, NSA and other security agencies to find Ezemma, the activist said that expectations are that the authorities would have swung into action, without waiting for people in his likes to report the incident to them.”

The activist added: “Let these security agencies use the facilities available to them to track down his kidnappers. Even if it entails to monitor the call log of Ben through his service providers, we can use it to know the kind of person Ben was, and what he has been into and who he has been having dealings with.

“Some people who are suspected to have had dealings with the missing businessman have been dragged to court.”

Obi pleaded with journalists to show interest in the matter by reporting it to the world, to avoid it being swept under the carpet.

He however expressed happiness about the level of commitment the Department of State Services (DSS) in Anambra State has shown in the matter, but condemned the state police Command for what he called glaring incompetence.

The activist also conveyed his sadness with police performance in the matter, adding: “Anambra should not be a dumping ground for police officers who are due for retirement, who just come here to make money. If this continues, we may have no option than to protest it.”