POLICE FIND MYSTERY CORPSES FLOATING IN ANAMBRA RIVER

The floating bodies of Ezu River

All it took to re-enact the confusion often associated with Nigerian newspapers were some corpses floating down the Ezu River on Saturday morning. The river passes through about five communities in Enugu and Anambra States before emptying into the greater River Niger. First sighted in Amansea, Awka North Local Government Area of Anambra State, some of the bloated corpses were said to have had their hands tied behind their backs, obviously an indication they were probably tortured to death. Thereafter the drama began, of course first provoked by the media, and then given added colour by the police, baffled community elders, the touchy-feely Governor of Anambra State, Mr Peter Obi, and local tourists with bizarre tastes for the macabre.

First, the newspapers. Not only did their headlines fail to agree on the number of floating corpses, their reports also showed clearly that they depended on unreliable eyewitnesses’ accounts for the scanty and conflicting details of the gory spectacle. Two newspapers, without proof, said the corpses numbered over 50; another, perhaps thinking it was exercising more reportorial restraint, said the corpses were about 40; and yet another dutifully reported 30. But the drama was just beginning. The Enugu State Commissioner of Police, Musa Daura, was reported by one of the newspapers to have led a team of policemen to view the scene from the vantage position of the Amansea Bridge. He was mystified about the corpses, he told reporters, but would work with his Anambra State counterpart to unravel the murders. Hear, hear.

Then, according to the same reports, the Anambra State governor weighed in with his own drama by cutting short his overseas trip to attend to the tragedy. Perhaps Hardball had, unknown to himself, become desensitised to all forms of tragedies; but for a governor to cut short a foreign trip over some floating corpses seems a little extravagant, not to put too fine a point on it. But perhaps the meticulous Mr Obi deserves this columnist’s apology. For if newspapers’ accounts, unlike their statistics, are to be believed, it was not until the governor returned home that he ordered the evacuation of the corpses, and announced a reward of N5m for information on the murders. The tragedy occurred somewhere within the jurisdictions of two state police commands, but it was not until Monday, a clear two days after the corpses were first sighted, that shaken security men began tackling the mess. It was then everyone, including perplexed policemen and community elders speaking in the grand manner, discovered that the corpses were about 18, not 30, not 40, and nothing near 50.

On the same Saturday the corpses were discovered, they ought to have been evacuated, police should have opened multipronged investigations, the scenes of crime cordoned off and samples taken, and accurate information issued by relevant law enforcement agencies. But as usual, the authorities chose drama and slothfulness. If the shock and outrage exhibited by the public could drive the authorities to solve the crime, it would perhaps mitigate the initial official pussyfooting that accompanied the discovery of the floating corpses of Ezu River and end the farcical drama everyone concerned is enacting to our dismay.

Culled from: http://thenationonlineng.net/new/editorial/hardball/the-floating-bodies-of-ezu-river/