Charity Aiyedogbon, an Abuja-based business woman went missing on May 9, 2016. She was popularly known as Deepdeal Chacha Dehammer.
Her disappearance has been widely publicized and talked about across
the country and by Nigerians in diaspora. A massive social media
campaign was launched by her friends and well wishers to look for her.
to be separated from her husband, David, vanished without a trace,
without informing anyone of any trip even though a curious message was
found on her Facebook wall saying she was going on a road trip.
been forced to write this on Facebook to make it look as if she indeed
travelled, said unpacked luggage in her apartment and a full pot of soup
in her kitchen showed that she did not plan to go anywhere.
from her husband, David, for about two years, while her children live
with their father.
popularly called Deepdeal-Chacha-Dehammer, said “I am sorry to disappoint those who have
hoped that Chacha would be found alive and rescued. Without ruling out
completely the miracle of her being found alive, our investigation and
analysis of the facts, events and occurrences in this case indicate that
Chacha is probably dead. We presume she was killed within a few hours
of her estimated time of disappearance.”
And just a few minutes ago, the renowned US-based Nigerian lawyer/activist, Barr. Emeka Ugwuonye announced that Chacha is dead.
The
lawyer who claimed there has been threat to his life for pursuing
justice for Mrs. Aiyedogbon published the following statement on the
Facebook page of The Due Process Advocates (DPA)
Please read…
SUNDAY: FURTHER UPDATE ON JUSTICE FOR CHACHA
Thank you all for your concerns about the revelations I have made on
this case. But to put your minds at rest, Chacha’s body has been
discovered and it has been identified to a reasonable degree of legal
certainty. Nigerian police actually got Chacha’s body within a day or
two after she was brutally murdered, but they were too incompetent and
dysfunctional to identify the body. Besides, at that time, nobody had
reported Chacha missing. It took about 10 days after her murder before
there was any serious concern that she was missing. If you want to know
the exact time line of Chacha’s death, it was shortly before that moment
that status update was posted on her wall that she she was going on a
road trip.
Once it was confirmed to him that the job was done and that she had
been killed, the person who all along had Chacha’s FB password made a
status update on her wall saying that she was on a road trip. That post
served so many purposes. First, it was to conceal the fact that Chacha
was missing. It was to create a temporary excuse for Chacha’s silence
and lack of contact with her friends. Second, by delaying the moment her
disappearance would be discovered, it also gave the killers time to
dispose of the body. We believe she was killed in the city at night and
her body disposed of the following night.
She was not killed at the spot or near the spot where her body was
found. Also, evidence suggests that her body was not cut up until nearly
24 hours after she was killed. The killers thought that they were
clever. But they are amatures. They left too many clues.
I have received calls and messages from very few people who said:
Let’s wait to confirm that she is really dead. One even told me that I
needed to delay and wait for more confirmation in order to avoid risks
to my reputation in case she it turns out that she is alive. That is a
very twisted and poor manner to view these things. I asked the person:
if she is not dead, where do you think she is? Hiding somewhere in the
bushes? Or sitting somewhere tied up by some confused kidnappers who
don’t know how to demand for ransom.
Now, let us consider the scenarios under which Chacha could show up
alive and I would be shamed. If the person I accused of killing her has
only been holding her hostage and he decides to release her in order to
shame me by showing she is alive while I said she was dead, how does
that hurt me? I will be happy my statements forced him to release her.
If Chacha has been hiding in the Abuja jungles and she decides to come
out of hiding in order for me to be proven to have lied, that is to my
advantage, as it means my ‘false’ statements forced her to come out of
hiding. On the other hand, if she resurrects from death and shows up
just in order to prove me wrong, I will be happy. So, I am really not
perturbed about the possibility that I could be proven wrong. On the
contrary, I am praying to be be wrong. As I told one guy who expressed
these fears to me yesterday, I am not a journalist that simply wants to
report a story or an outcome. I am a lawyer fighting to create or
achieve the just outcome. so, I will leave others to live in the fantasy
island where it will be okay to believe that Chacha is still alive
wondering in the shrubs around Abuja.