Rights activist attacked by gunmen gives clue of whereabout of missing Anambra Bishop

By Ifeizu Joe 

A human rights leader and chairman of board of trustees of International Society for Civil Liberties and Rule of Law, Mr Emeka Umeagbalasi has given clue to the whereabout of a missing bishop in Anambra State.

Umeagbalasi, an indigene of Ezinifitte in Aguata Local Government Area of the state was on 5th December attacked by dare devil gunmen masquerading as freedom fighters, who dispossessed him of his Hilux van at gunpoint, terrifying his family members.

He was travelling with his family from his hometown to his base in Onitsha when he was attacked.

A day after the incident, Bishop Ndubuisi Obi of Nnewi Diocese had raised an alarm over the whereabout of one of their leaders, Most Rev. Prof. Godwin Okpala (Retired Archbishop of the Niger Province and Bishop of Nnewi), who was said to have gone missing with his driver days after he set out from his base in Nnewi to his home town Umuchu.

There have however been no news of the cleric or any call for payment of ransom from abductors since he went missing.

But Umeagbalasi who narrated his experience on the same day the bishop went missing said there are indications that the cleric may have been one of many people abducted on the day he was attacked, as the description of his car fits that of those who were abducted on the day of the attack.

He said: “At Ezinifite-Aguata Roundabout on Thursday, December 5, 2024; the armed group members, numbering over fifteen also openly shouted “Biafra or Nothing !!!” amid war-grade shootings and raining of bullets.

“It is also our strong suspicion that the missing Retired Archbishop of the Nnewi Province of the Anglican Communion, Most Reverend Prof Godwin Okpala, his driver and their Prado Jeep might have gone missing during the shooting spree and parade of the said Thursday, Dec 5, 2024, in the hands of the armed Counterfeit Biafra Agitators who are likely to have taken them into captivity.”

Attempts by THE RAZOR to find out from the state police command’s spokesperson, SP Tochukwu Ikenga of any news about the wellbeing of the cleric was not successful as calls to his phone line was not reachable.