IG urged to investigate death of union leader

Network on Police Reforms in Nigeria (NOPRIN) has called on the Inspector General of Police, Mr. Mohammed Abubakar to investigate the mysterious death of Mr. Eugene Nwachinemerem Enwerem who was found hanging from the bucket of an asphalt mixer.
Enwerem, 42, from Imo State, was believed to have been killed sometimes between May 24 and 25, 2013 by unknown persons who were apparently against his fight for better welfare in the company where he worked.
The deceased union leader before his death, had also taken steps to spill the bean to the owner of the company about all the atrocious acts perpetrated in the company by some management people against casual workers like him.
It was after one of those battles for better treatment of casual workers that the deceased was found dead in asphalt mixer bucket. Enwerem, father of a three-year-old boy, was initially living in the northern part of the country with his wife and son until the Boko Haram onslaught, forced them to Owerri, Imo State.
He later secured a job as a casual worker with Rhas construction Company Nigeria Limited (a division of Rhas Nigeria Limited), a Lebanese firm reputed for hotel finance, refurbishment and Management and operating in Nigeria with offices at Teachers House, Plot 9 Port- Harcourt Road, Owerri, Imo State.
Mrs. Theresa Enwerem, widow of the deceased, said that her late husband was found dead during his duty hour inside an ‘Asphalt mixer bucket’ while on night duty at the Rhas Construction Company’s Asphalt Yard at Irette, near Owerri, Imo State between May 24 and 25, 2013.
According to her, her husband left home for work hale and hearty on the night of May 24, 2013 but, quite unusual of him, did not return home the next morning. Her anxious inquiries from the company’s personnel, did not yield any result until the next day when she learnt, to her utter shock, that her husband had died while on duty and that his corpse had been deposited at the General Hospital Mortuary, Umuguma.
She said that neither her late husband’s immediate supervisor at work, one Mr. Amanze, who directed that her late husband’s dead body be deposited at the mortuary nor any other management staff of the company, informed her or any other member of the family about the death of her husband up to the second day.
She said that her it was another laborer on duty with her husband, one Mr. Chukwuemeka Agaecheta who eventually informed her husband’s relative, Mr. Zaccheus Ekezie- also a worker in the same company- that he saw Mr. Eugene Enwerem’s dead body inside a very high Asphalt Mixer bucket in the yard with his two legs hanging out.
Mr. Agaecheta further informed Mr. Zaccheus Ekezie that the late Mr. Eugene Enwerem’s personal belongings – including his shirt, underpants, telephone handset and wallet were removed from his body but these personal belongings were yet to be handed over to her till date.
NOPRIN spokesman, Okechukwu Nwanguma said that going by the company’s duty register, nine laborers were scheduled to be on night duty on the date of the incident, however, on duty with the late Enwerem on that fateful night of May 24 2013, were Mr. Chukwuemeka Agaecheta and one Mr. James Jones- a Pay-loader operator at the Asphalt Yard at Irette. Also on duty on that night were two Police Mobile Officers on guard and two Indian nationals at the control room.
Mrs. Enwerem said that she was informed that the Asphalt mixer was so high that her late husband could not have jumped into it without either climbing a ladder or being pushed into it by someone or a group of persons.
Mr. Agaecheta allegedly informed her husband’s family members that while inside the Asphalt mixer, Mr. Enwerem’s dead body was covered with asphalt emptied into the asphalt mixer by the pay loader. She and the entire family strongly believe that their breadwinner was murdered.
Interestingly, Mrs. Enwerem said that her husband was not scheduled for night duty on that particular day, but some management personnel who apparently had scores to settle with him lured him to night duty on that fateful night through persistent phone calls by his supervisor. Due to the persistent phone calls, Enwerem eventually left for work on that fateful night.
Before his death, the leader of the company’s workers union, had reported some fraudulent and exploitative activities of some management staff of the company to the Managing Director, and this angered the affected management staff, who most likely conspired among themselves and murdered him in revenge.
She further claimed that her late husband had on several occasions when he returned home from work, expressed his frustration and discontent with the inhumane, degrading and hazardous work conditions at his workplace.
The deceased had particularly complained about the exploitation and shortchanging of the company’s casual workers by the said management officials in relation to salaries, wages, poor conditions of employment, negligent attitude of the company towards safety at work.
Nwanguma noted: “The deceased reportedly used to complained about how the company subjected its casual workers- mainly Nigerian nationals- to slavish conditions of service such as making them work long hours against international labour law. For example, one batch of workers is made to work between the hours of 6am and 6pm, while another batch works between 6pm and 6am on a paltry monthly salary of N12, OOO per worker.
“In spite of the workers’ paltry monthly wage, some greedy management officials of the company- without authorization, randomly makes deductions from the poor workers salary. “As a result of these unfair and objectionable working conditions, the casual workers of the company, led by the deceased, embarked on a one-day warning strike on May 24, 2013. This was with the intention to engage the attention and rapid response of the company management. “Consequent upon the warning strike by the workers, the Managing Director of the Company summoned a meeting of the casual workers to address their grievances.
“Mrs. Enwerem said that her late husband had told her that at the meeting, the Managing Director of the company Mr. S.T Sariadeen personally and privately sought Enwerem’s audience as the overall leader of the casual workers, and that the Managing Director described him as a responsible and committed worker, devoted to his duties. “It was at this meeting that her late husband reported to the Managing Director how some Management staff of the company was exploiting and short- changing the casual workers.
“The Managing Director of the Company who was terribly embarrassed by the shocking revelations of exploitations and short-changing of the casual workers by some management officials, further negotiated with her late husband and promised enhanced salaries, wages and other fringe benefits of the casual workers. The Managing Director thereafter, personally made a monetary gift to Enwerem to motivate him to persuade his co-workers to call-off the strike and resume work immediately.
“She believes that it was the startling revelation made to the company’s Managing Director, of the fraudulent activities of the mentioned staff that provoked their anger and their decision to conspire among themselves to lure him to work that night.
“The family finds it suspicious that two days after the death of their worker while on duty within their premises, the company management not only failed to inform the deceased’s family – not even his relative, Mr. Zaccheus Ekezie who works in the same company- but also failed to report the incident to the police.
“More than 24 hours after her husband had not returned home from work, and while she was still searching for him, she received the shocking news of her husband’s death through their family church members. The company sent a delegation which visited The Chosen Charismatic Movement, Owerri where the family worships and requested the church to inform the family about the death of their member and to convince them to commence burial plans and inform the company.”
Following the report by the family, the police arrested and detained Mr. Amanze for about one week and released him after the autopsy report was handed over to the police. The family is yet to be given a copy of the autopsy report despite their demand for it.
Although the company claimed that they took the late Mr. Enwerem to one Rockview hospital, Owerri for treatment before he died, the Medical Director of the hospital had said to the hearing of a family friend and sympathizer that he only learnt of Mr. Enwerem’s death when the company contacted him with a request to stand in for them during the autopsy.
The family also disputes the company’s claim that her husband died from industrial accident, as those who saw the dead body reported that there were no external bodily injuries, bruises or lacerations to suggest industrial accident.
When a close family friend and sympathizer got wind of the plan by the police authorities in Imo State to engage their official pathologist to carry out an autopsy on the body of the deceased without reference to the family, the family friend quickly arranged for a private pathologist who was present with her during the autopsy.
To their dismay, the police pathologist did not come with any equipment for the pathological examination. He had to fall back on the equipment brought by the private pathologist arranged by the family friend to carry out the autopsy. This, to the family, suggested that the police pathologist merely wanted to write a report without actually examining the body.
Although the police are yet to make the report of the autopsy available to the family, but their representatives observed that during the autopsy, the respiratory and other internal systems of the deceased was filled with asphalt- suggesting that he died due to suffocation, contrary to the company Doctor’s claim, prior to any examination, that the deceased died of epilepsy. Mrs. Enwerem asserted that in her over 13 years of marriage with her late husband, he never reported or had any incident of epilepsy and had no medical history of epilepsy during his life time.
Nwanguma maintained: “NOPRIN is seriously concerned by the mystery surrounding the death of Mr. Enwerem, the nonchalant behavior so far put up by the management of Rhas Construction Company which points to abdication of its responsibility to its worker who died in the course of duty, and their suspected attempt to compromise investigation and shield those who may be responsible from justice.
“The company’s offer of monetary compensation of (N750, 000.00) and the promise to provide the casket for the burial of the deceased amounts to sheer mockery and a perfunctory display of concern, which the widow has rightly rejected. NOPRIN wants a fresh investigation by a team of honest and impartial detectives from the force headquarters to take over from Imo State Police with a view to unraveling the true circumstances surrounding the mysterious death of Mr. Eugene Nwachinemerem Enwerem.
“Identify the perpetrators and bring them to book. If the deceased was murdered- as is being reasonably suspected by the family, those found responsible should be tried in a competent court of law. If he is found to have died negligently from the operational failure of the asphalt mixer as is being implausibly claimed or speculated by the company, then the company must still be made to take full criminal responsibility for their negligence for their failure and or neglect to exercise due care and caution by ensuring and enforcing safety standards in its work place or taking adequate steps to prevent the so-called accident as was regularly complained by the deceased before his untimely death.
“Ensure adequate monetary compensation to the family. While monetary compensation cannot replace or quantify the loss of a bread winner of a family, we however recognize the need that the widow has to take care of herself and her three year-old boy. We therefore call on the IGP to ensure that the company pays adequate compensation to the indigent widow to enable her take adequate care of herself and her three year-old baby’s upbringing and education up to university level.
“We also call for an investigation into the operations of Rhas Nigeria Limited, particularly, the allegation that the company enslaves Nigerians by subjecting them to hazardous, inhumane and exploitative work conditions- in contrast to their own or nationals of other foreign countries- contrary to Nigeria law and international labour standards.”