We’re yet to get justice, children of late Akunyili tell Anambra peace panel

The children of late Dora Akunyili, a former minister of information and communication, says the family is yet to get justice for the killing of their father. 

Their father — Chike Akunyili — was killed on September 28, 2021, at Umuoji, Idemili north LGA of Anambra state.

Obumneme Akunyili, one of the children, spoke when he appeared before the Anambra truth, justice and peace committee during a public hearing on violence and violence-related deaths in Anambra.

Obumneme said the family is still trying to come to terms with the killing of their father and “waiting for answers”.

“My father’s death was senseless, violent and barbaric. We are still trying to come to terms with it as a family,” he said.

“We are still waiting for answers to that killing, there are rumours but no answers, there has been no trials, I don’t think anybody has gone to court to answer for that murder.”

He noted that social media was awashed with insinuations that their father was killed by “unknown gunmen”, adding that the allegation could not be used as an evidence to fish out the perpetrators and bring them to justice.

“You cannot rule out the fact that it was a politically-charged period, there were lots of killings under the umbrella of unknown gunmen, so the accusations based on social media theories will not be correct,” he said.

“I feel everybody ran from the blame because of the personality of my father, nobody wanted to be associated with his killing, nobody wanted to be identified as the person that killed Dora Akunyili’s husband.

“It is all assumptions, none of these theories has concrete evidence that you can prosecute, prosecution is fine with facts and knowledge, these are not what we want now.

“When my mother died, people insinuated that she was poisoned, whereas she died of cancer, we were in the hospital with her.”

Obum noted that his father and his driver bled to death as no effort was made to take them to the hospital for a possible chance of survival.

“My father had about 10 percent survival chance. It was a traumatic injury that required a whole lot to save him but he did not get to the hospital before he died,” he said.

“If he had reached the hospital, we would know there was an attempt, that they did all they could to save him but nothing like that.

“There was a hospital seven minutes away, Borromew was 15 minutes away from there but no attempt.

“The driver’s case was worse, he was shot and people were asking him his name, where he is from and he was bleeding to death, people were trying to make viral videos.”

He described his father as a good man, who lived a fulfilled life and devoted himself to philanthropy.

He thanked the truth committee for giving the children the opportunity to tell their story and expressed hope that their inquiry would lead to a fruitful outcome for Anambra and the south-east.

Chidi Odinkalu, chairman of the commission, urged the Akunyili family not to be discouraged by the incident but continue to excel in their various fields of endeavour.