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Twenty-four years after the killing of former Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Onitsha Branch chairman, Barnabas Igwe, and his wife, Abigail, former National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) Chairman, Prof. Chidi Odinkalu, has questioned the appointment of Ken Emeakayi as security adviser to Anambra State Governor, Chukwuma Soludo.
Odinkalu said Emeakayi’s name featured prominently in records he personally reviewed while serving as chairman of the Anambra State Truth, Justice and Peace Commission, which revisited the unresolved killings.
He made the disclosure during an online interview with Noble Nigeria, a digital media platform.
According to Odinkalu, the commission submitted its report to Governor Soludo in March 2024 and recommended that the state government reopen the case and take steps to bring Emeakayi and others he allegedly commanded to account.
He, however, stressed that the commission did not pronounce Emeakayi guilty, but identified outstanding questions that required further investigation and action by the state government.
“Ken Emeakayi, on the basis of the report of the Truth, Justice and Peace Commission, has questions that remain unanswered,” Odinkalu said.
The former NHRC chairman said he was therefore troubled by Soludo’s decision to appoint Emeakayi as his Special Adviser on Security in October 2024, months after the commission had submitted its report.
“Regrettably, in October 2024, the governor appointed Ken Emeakayi his security adviser. That is one of the issues I find difficult to let go of as a matter of fact,” he said.
Odinkalu said he could not speak for Soludo or explain the reasons behind the appointment, but maintained that the findings contained in the commission’s report could not simply be ignored.
“The governor has his reasons. I’m not privy to them. But in response to your direct question, Ken Emeakayi, on the basis of the report of the Truth, Justice and Peace Commission, has questions that remain unanswered,” he said.
The Igwe killings
Barnabas Igwe, who was chairman of the NBA Onitsha Branch, and his wife, Abigail, were killed in Onitsha on September 1, 2002, after returning from the NBA national conference in Ibadan.
Igwe had been a prominent critic of the administration of then Anambra State Governor Chinwoke Mbadinuju, particularly over the non-payment of salaries to state workers.
According to reports, Igwe and other critics of the administration had received threats shortly before the attack.
The couple were attacked by armed men while travelling home.
Reports at the time said the assailants used firearms and machetes and subsequently ran over their bodies with their vehicle again and again. Abigail was pregnant at the time.
The killings became one of the most notorious unresolved political murders in Anambra State.
Odinkalu said Emeakayi was associated with the Bakassi Boys security structure operating in the state at the time and that an earlier prosecution had led to his arrest and detention on a murder charge.
He said the prosecution was disrupted after the court handling the case was sacked and a prison break resulted in Emeakayi’s release.
“The court was sacked and there was a prison break in which he was freed, but the trial did not end, strictly speaking. It’s just that the records kind of vanished,” Odinkalu said.
He said the loss of the records contributed to the collapse of the prosecution and was among the reasons the Truth, Justice and Peace Commission revisited the case years later.
Odinkalu further alleged that records reviewed by the commission identified Emeakayi as the person who led the operation that killed the couple.
“On the basis of the records I reviewed personally, he led the operation,” he said.
He added that the commission’s findings indicated that Abigail knew Emeakayi because he had reportedly been a client of the Igwes’ law firm.
“When Mrs. Igwe saw him in the heat of the attack, she was running towards him when she was hit. And she was pregnant,” he said.
Commission’s findings
Odinkalu said the commission did not determine Emeakayi’s guilt but found that there were unresolved issues requiring government action.
He said the commission specifically recommended that the state government reopen the case and take appropriate steps concerning Emeakayi and those he allegedly commanded.
The professor said the unresolved nature of the killings, coupled with Emeakayi’s subsequent appointment as a security adviser, remained deeply troubling to him.
He described the appointment as “a terrible blot on the record of the current governor of Anambra State.”
Odinkalu said the commission had completed the assignment given to it by the state government and submitted its findings to Soludo.
“We delivered the report to him. And the report tells him Ken Emeakayi has questions to answer,” he said.
He also recalled that the Igwes left behind three young children—two boys and a girl—who, despite the trauma and hardship caused by the deaths of their parents, eventually graduated.
The killings of Barnabas and Abigail Igwe in 2002 have remained one of the most controversial unresolved cases in Anambra’s political history.
The Anambra State Truth, Justice and Peace Commission was established years later to examine historical conflicts and human-rights concerns in the state, including unresolved cases such as the Igwes’ deaths.
Its report, according to Odinkalu, raised outstanding questions about the killings and recommended further action.
