The children of the late Dora Akunyili said the family had yet to get justice over the gruesome murder of their father, Chike Akunyili, two years ago.

Obum Akunyili, one of the children, said this when he appeared before the Truth, Justice and Peace Commission during a public hearing on violence and violence-related deaths in Anambra.

Mr Akunyili said more painful was that justice had not been done since their father was murdered at Nkpo, Idemili North LGA, on September 28, 2023.

“My father’s death was senseless, violent and barbaric. We are still trying to come to terms with it as a family. We are still waiting for answers to that killing, there are rumours but no answers. There have been no trials. I don’t think anybody has gone to court to answer for that murder,” he said

Mr Akunyili said there were only insinuations that their father was killed by the so-called unknown gunmen.

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

He added, “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.”

Mr Akunyili regretted that the deceased and his driver were left to die after being attacked.

“My father had about a 10 per cent 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. 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,” he told the commission. “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 said.

He thanked the commission for giving them 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, the chairman of the commission, led other members to commiserate with the Akunyili family and urged them not to be discouraged by the incident but to continue to excel in their various chosen fields of endeavour.

(NAN)