The death of one Ifeanyi Ikejemba, a cousin to Dozie Ikedife Jnr, has generated controversies in Nnewi, Anambra state, POLITICS NIGERIA learnt.
Dozie Ikedife Jnr was a deputy governorship aspirant under the All Progressive Congress (APC) in 2015. He is also the eldest son of late Anambra elder statesman and former President-General of Ohanaeze Ndigbo, Dr Dozie Ikedife.
The Ikedifes and the Ikejembas are from Otolo and Akammili villages respectively.
This paper gathered that Ifeanyi Ikejemba, who had lived with the Ikedifes for over 16 years was found dead on March 2, inside his room in the Ikedife’s family compound.
However, the death of Ifeanyi has caused a furore in the family as Ifeanyi’s elder sibling, Ebele Ikejemba, accused Dozie Jnr of killing her brother. Also on that fateful day, some youths in the community threatened to raze down Mr Dozie’s house and other properties.
Ebele, who had earlier made her stance known via a Facebook post dated March 3, called the attention of the police and human rights activists to the alleged murder. According to her, Dozie Jnr sent for her brother to come and see him at Otolo, a night before his death. “Ifeanyi left Akammili and never returned alive,” She narrated.
Dozie Jnr returned from the United States of America (USA) on that day and called in around 9:00 pm.
Nevertheless, when POLITICS NIGERIA contacted Ebele, she insisted that Dozie killed Ifeanyi saying that three holes were found on his corpse when she visited the morgue. She added that when Dozie Jnr came to announce the death of Ifeanyi, he claimed that the deceased had carnal knowledge of his daughter fourteen years ago.
Quoting Dozie Jnr, Ebele stated that the alleged assault took place when the girl was five years old.
“Dozie Ikedife Jnr apparently ordered his security, driver and chef to beat him up and the next morning being 02/03/20 he was told that Ifeanyi our brother didn’t wake up.”
“However, when we went to the police to determine where the body of our brother was, we saw several gunshot wounds inflicted on his body. But the gunshot wound inflicted on his body had been stitched up by Dozie’s younger brother, Dr Somadina Ikedife so that it would have seemed like he was beaten to death.”
“Instead our very quiet and helpful brother was rather shot in cold blood. Now Dozie Ikedife Jnr is reaching out to the powerful businessmen and military to hide away from the sins he has committed,” She said.
Rancour
Although the relationship between the Ikejemba’s and the Ikedife’s have been a smooth one in the last fifteen years, a disagreement occurred towards December 2019, POLITICS NIGERIA gathered.
Dozie Jnr sponsored the tiling apprenticeship training for Ifeanyi and the tertiary education of his younger sister.
Meanwhile, this correspondent was told that before the visit of March 1, Ifeanyi had a disagreement with Dozie jnr which led to him moving out of the house in December.
Ebele stated that Mr Dozie owns a bar called ‘Elders’ court’ in Otolo, where Ifeanyi once worked. “While he was working at the bar, Dozie was not paying him and Ifeanyi complained that if Dozie wants him to continue working, he deserves to be paid like other staff,” this was the basis of the disagreement, Ebele said.
She further explained that Ifeanyi protested because staying in the bar clashed with his tiling job.
Ikedife’s defence
When our correspondent reached out to Mr Dozie, he immediately claimed the telephone number dialled was not his and a follow-up SMS was sent to him, insisting that the line belongs to him.
Meanwhile, his media aide, Lotanna Okafor, contacted POLITICS NIGERIA the following day, saying Mr Dozie instructed him to respond to the allegations. In his response, Mr Dozie denied being culpable for Ifeanyi’s death.
“We were all asleep only for domestic staff to tell us that he was dead the following day,” Okafor said.
“It was a great loss because Ifeanyi is a good boy that the family likes. The late Dozie Snr loved him. In fact, when his grandmother died, Dozie gave her a befitting burial.”
When quizzed about the cause of Ifeanyi’s death, he told this correspondent that police are yet to ascertain the cause of the death. Although he denied any disagreement between Ifeanyi and Mr Dozie, he confirmed that the deceased stopped managing the bar some months ago.
However, Okafor said he was not privy to much information about what brought Ifeanyi to the house that night but he debunked allegations of any assault launched on the deceased.
“Ifeanyi’s room is still much intact. His clothes are there. He comes and leaves when he feels like,” He told POLITICS NIGERIA.
The cry for justice
Ever since the death of Ifeanyi, all efforts by his family members to get justice have yielded no result.
POLITICS NIGERIA confirmed that Mr Dozie Jnr was invited by the police to the Area Command in Awka but he refused to honour the invitation.
Ebele earlier told POLITICS NIGERIA that when the police came to Dozie’s residence to arrest some suspects, no one was found in the house.
“We demand the Inspector General of police to set up a team to be headed by DCP kauri to investigate the whole situation. We are willing to involve the Human rights movement, the American Government (Since Dozie also has an American citizenship) and has the capability of running away, involving the government and every possible media outlet since now he is moving to threaten our families,” She disclosed to our correspondent.
Although POLITICS NIGERIA could not reach the Area Commander of police in that area, Haruna Mohammed, the Anambra state police spokesperson promised to look into the case.
“Just saw it. Let the complainants meet me in the office for discreet investigation please,” He informed our correspondent.
