(IJC/IFEX) – Fidelis Ikwuebe, a freelance journalist who was allegedly kidnapped on 4 April 1999 during bloody inter-communal clashes in Aguleri – Umuleri in the Anambra East Local Government area of Anambra state, has been confirmed dead. Reports said the journalist, along with a Divisional Police Officer (DPO) in charge of Ezinifite in the Nnewi […]
(IJC/IFEX) – Fidelis Ikwuebe, a freelance journalist who was allegedly
kidnapped on 4 April 1999 during bloody inter-communal clashes in Aguleri –
Umuleri in the Anambra East Local Government area of Anambra state, has been
confirmed dead.
Reports said the journalist, along with a Divisional Police Officer (DPO) in
charge of Ezinifite in the Nnewi South Local Government area of Anambra
state, Peter Udekwe, was kidnapped during the crisis. The police chief was
said to have been sacrificed to a local deity in Umuleri while the
journalist was murdered in cold blood.
In addition, on 12 April, a journalist with the Anambra state-owned
“National Light” newspaper (name unknown), was detained on the order of the
state military administrator, Wing Commander Emmanuel Ukaegbu, over reports
of the communal crisis between the Aguleri and Umuleri communities in the
state.
The administrator was said to have been enraged by the report of the
journalist being among those killed so far in the “war”.
