Anambra: One Year After Youthful LP Governorship Candidate Was Abducted, Whereabouts Remain Unknown

By Charles Igbo

It is a mystery. None like it in the South-east yet. It is one year since Mr Obiora Agbasimalo was abducted, and till date, nobody has seen him.

Until his abduction, he was the Anambra State Governorship candidate for the Labour Party. He was on a campaign trail at Azhia, in Ihiala Local Government Area, when he was abducted by gunmen. He has since disappeared into thin air.

Nobody knows the group which kidnapped him. And why? Was it political? Was it out of envy and jealousy because he was well off? But since that September 18, 2021, nothing has been heard from him, or of him. No ransom has been demanded. Just nothing.

The questions his family and friends are asking are: What happened to him? Who kidnapped him? Is he dead or alive? If dead, why has nobody seen his body? If not dead, why have his abductors not made any contacts?

A few months ago, his mother made an emotional, passionate appeal to his abductors to please release him in the name of God, and because of her. She said the only request she is making of everybody is to see his son as his abduction and the loud silence were killing her. “He is the one who look after me”, she lamented.

Nothing much has been heard from his Party, LP.  The Party has been silent, and curiously, no statement  has been forthcoming from Security Agencies in the State.

Dr Chidi Odinkalu, a former Chairman of the National Human Rights Commission is agitated by the silence from both the leaderships of the LP and the Security Agencies.

On Sunday, September 18, he took to his Twitter handle and wrote: “#OnThisDay in 2021, Obiora Agbasimalo, candidate of #LabourParty @NgLabour in #AnambraDecides2021, was abducted on his way to what was supposed to be a campaign rally. He has disappeared since then & both the leadership of @NgLabour & its supporters have forgotten abt him.”

On December 12, 2021, a Coalition of Concerned Civil Society Organisation, at a Press Conference, urged the Federal Government and Security Agencies to find Agbasimalo. The Coalition gave them a seven-day deadline to find him or face a civil disobedience.

Phil Roberts who spoke on the Coalition’s behalf, expressed the concern of Agbasimalo’s family and friends. “Whether he us dead or alive, no one knows, and all these questions are begging for answers:

“Who kidnapped Obiora Agbasimalo and how was he kidnapped? Already, family and friends are seeking for Obiora’s safety and his eventual release by his captors. We are, as a matter of urgency, by this Press Conference, respectfully urging Mr President to direct the Nigerian Police Force, Department of State Services, DSS, and other relevant Security Agencies to get to the root of this matter in the interest of the peace and stability of not just the South-east region, but the Nation at large.”

Nothing has happened since then. Mr Agbasimalo remains missing.

And his family remains heartbroken, not knowing what to believe.