Friends remember university graduate who was killed for Nigeria's unity

The event’s mood was sombre. Definitely so. But it was also defiant and angry. The event was the first year memoriam for Ikechukwu Chibuzor Ukeoma, one of the corpers who was killed in the North, so the sombreness was only to be expected.

Ukeoma, popularly known as AIK, was one of the ten corpers murdered in a gruesome manner in a police station in Giade, Bauchi State on April 18^th 2011. The corpers were among those used by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to conduct the 2011 national elections and they were killed because they wouldn’t allow underage voting or condone any other form of electoral malpractice.

On Sunday, April 17^th 2011, an exuberant AIK intimated the world of his election experiences through his Facebook page. He posted: “I am happy I could stand for my God and my nation. To all of you corpers who stood for the right thing despite these threats especially in the North, I say bravo. Nigeria, our change has come.”

He continued: “If wealth is lost, nothing is lost. If health is lost, something is lost. But if character is lost, all is lost.”

The following day, Monday April 18^th 2011, the patriotic AIK’s life was brutally cut short. When and his colleagues realised they were in mortal danger, they ran to the police station for safety, but it wasn’t provided by the Nigerian police officers on duty at the station.

Nnaemeka Christian Ukeoma is AIK’s elder brother. According to him: “If I was in that same dangerous situation, I would have done exactly what AIK did. I would have run to the police station for protection.”

Disclosing that he still feels very bad about AIK’s needless death, Nnaemeka recounted what he could of it. “The last time we spoke was on Sunday (April 17^th 2011) evening when it had become apparent to him and his friends that their lives were in grave danger.

“By Monday (April 18^th 2011), his phone was no longer reachable. When our junior sister was worried that we couldn’t reach him, I reassured by saying we had to believe he was alive. But she kept calling his number and on Tuesday, April 19^th 2011, someone eventually answered it and said AIK was dead.”

How to inform their parents then became a problem. “I couldn’t just go and break the news to our parents anyhow in the village. I went to them with several elders. Nevertheless, it was a dramatic session. My mother said she had the premonition and she had tried his number too without getting him. I just thank God that she didn’t get the person who told my sister. It would have made the revelation worse.”

This week’s Thursday was exactly one year the corpers, now known as the Bauchi 10, were murdered, and those who knew AIK when he was alive and will forever feel the pain and loss of his early death felt it only appropriate to hold a memorial lecture to mark the day.

The memoriam, held in Lagos at the International Press Centre, Ogba was organised under the aegis of Friends of AIK, and its importance became underscored when one of them, Ifeanyi Okoye,  said, “Today (Thursday) is exactly one year since AIK and his friends were killed for the sake of this nation yet the government isn’t even doing anything in their memoriam today.”

And thus the reason for the defiance and anger. Friends of AIK not only organised the memorial lecture to honour AIK but to also protest the shoddy way the government is handling the issue.

“It is sad that the government is yet to bring the murderers to book,” Okoye said angrily. And defiantly, “We cannot wait until our children grow up before we address the issue of graduates serving in the North. We have to do something and the time is now.”

Speaking about AIK, his friends described him as passionate about Nigeria, generous, virtuous, hardworking, selfless and a promising asset to the country. These were the qualities he possessed that are still making it hard for them to fully come to terms with his death.

Full of anger at the unnecessary and senseless loss of such a gem, Okoye blasted further, “AIK and his colleagues died for Nigeria. If not for them, Nigeria might no longer be in existence. Yet their families are suffering and nobody cares. This is just one year after and nobody remembers them. The government doesn’t, neither does INEC and NYSC that jointly combined to send them to their deaths.

The government promised their families N5m each. True, they have redeemed that pledge. But they should have it in mind that AIK had good managerial skills. That N5m they compensated his family with is what he would have been earning on a monthly basis in five years’ time, meaning that he would have been able to take care of his family better if he was alive.

“But they also promised to give them jobs. But they haven’t done that. Why? Is that something that should take forever? How can the President promise their family members jobs and they are still not forthcoming? These young promising and bright people laid their lives down for Nigeria so they should be seen as topmost priority. We are calling on the government to provide those jobs now and to also immortalise the Bauchi 10 right away.”

But the memoriam wasn’t just about AIK alone.  The rest of the Bauchi 10 were also honoured. Their families too were also present and they also had grouses against the government’s neglect of their kins’ deaths.

Olatunde Teidi is the uncle of Olawale Tosin Teidi, another of the Bauchi 10. Olatunde is also yet to get over the death of his nephew whom he says he was responsible for.

“I had gone to send him money that Monday for him to board an Arik Air flight back to Lagos. So I called him on the phone to tell him but what he told me instead was ‘Uncle, pray, as we are in danger.’”

Saying it is sad and painful that there was no mention of the Bauchi 10’s first anniversary in any of the day’s papers by the government, he added that “Tosin’s death is a loss not only to us his family but also the nation. He studied computer science and he was naturally talented. He had an idea that he wanted to offer to Etisalat and my lawyer had even drawn up the papers. But his talent was wasted.”

Disclosing that his father, Tosin’s grandfather, is also dead now as a result of Tosin’s death, he said, “The government must fish out and punish the perpetrators, immortalise the Bauchi 10 and also provide the jobs they promised. Those are the reasons we gathered here and we expect the government to listen to us and obey our demands.