The Nigerians in Diaspora Commission (NiDCOM), an arm of the Federal Ministry of Foreign Affairs, has said that the employer of Chukwubuikem Emmanuel, a Nigerian student killed in the Philippines, and five others have been charged with murder.
According to a statement signed by Abdur-Rahman Balogun, NiDCOM spokesperson, Abike Dabiri-Erewa, the chairman of the commission said this on Monday at the investigative hearing of the joint Senate committees presided over in Abuja by Sen. Victor Umeh.
She stated that the Philippines authorities had declared the employer, wanted, adding that the Embassy had maintained contact with the line police station at the location.
Ikem was brutally murdered by six Chinese men in the Philippines with support from his on-the-run boss for demanding that his girlfriend be rightfully compensated for her work on October 21.
FIJ learned that after the men, who were summoned by his boss, beat him to a pulp, they framed him for sexual assault.
“He gave up the ghost before they got to the hospital where he was pronounced dead. Apparently, the Chinese men tied his hands up, covered him up, put a gag in his mouth and beat him until he sustained fatal injuries,” a friend told FIJ
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Speaking further, Enya Francis, the director consular in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said Ikem’s corpse was yet to be buried as it would cost between N31million and N35 million to repatriate and bury the corpse in Nigeria as against N10 million to N15 million to cremate it in the Philippines.
He said keeping the corpse at the funeral home was accruing N30,000 on daily basis, hence the need to expedite action on the investigation and take appropriate action.
Speaking on behalf of the family of the deceased, Blessings Essien, Ikem’s elder sister, said he was the only son of the family and in line with Igbo tradition, it would be an honour to bring the body back to Nigeria for burial.
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