Mystery: 50 Bodies Found Floating On Anambra River

Bodies floating on the Amansea River that empties into Anambra River from Agba Ogwudu River in Enugu State yesterday left the people of Amansea and their neighbours in Awka, the Anambra State capital shocked, as people from the communities went to fetch water from the river.

It was learnt that after counting up to 50 bodies, the bewildered villagers alerted their traditional ruler, Igwe Kenneth Okonkwo, who mobilized his cabinet for an emergency meeting after which the state government and the state police command were contacted.
The stench from the decomposing bodies could be picked from about one kilometre from the river and the development attracted many people to the area.

Anambra State Governor Peter Obi, who was away from the state on official assignment, was immediately contacted and he directed members of the state executive council to move to the spot with a view to finding out the true situation of things.

Most of the state commissioners and local government chairmen from some local government areas, as well as other top government officials, who were at the scene posed questions to the communities’ leaders to find out if anybody was missing in their areas. The indigenes so far said no one was missing in their communities.

The state commissioner for local government, Mrs Azuka Enemuo, who led the government delegation to the area, described the development as terrible.

“Since our arrival, we have counted about 14 dead bodies floating on this river and we may not have seen the last. We were duly informed by the security agencies and we believe they will carry out investigations to tell us actually what transpired.

“We have already contacted our neighbouring Enugu State government to find out if the bodies came from that state. The state government must get to the root of this matter,” Enemuo said.

Speaking on the incident, Igwe Kenneth Okonkwo said, apart from the mystery posed by the floating bodies, the worry of his people was that their main source of water supply may have been polluted.

He said the river is the only source of water for the five communities of Amansea, Ebenebe, Ugbenu, Ugbene and Oba-Ofemili and the development had caused a lot of discomfort to his people.

The Enugu State Police Commissioner, Mr Musa Daura, has assured the people of the communities affected and the state government that his command would probe the mystery surrounding the bodies, while he added when visiting the scene yesterday, that he would join hands with his Anambra State counterpart to investigate the source of the corpses.

According to him, the avalanche of dead bodies remained a mystery because he had not heard of any communal clash whether in Enugu or Anambra where many people were killed.