The interim Country Director, Amnesty International, Makmid Kamara, gave the assurance when members of Nunugwo’s family led by their lawyer, Mr. Paul Edeh, submitted a petition to the country office of the organisation in Abuja on Wednesday. The development comes barely two days after the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Mr. Abubakar Malami (SAN), called for an independent inquiry into how Nunugwo died. Kamara commended Malami for taking up the case and promised to pursue the case to a logical conclusion. He said, “We have been following the case and we are aware that the Attorney-General is looking into the matter which is commendable. We will also be carrying out an independent investigation to ascertain if there was a violation of fundamental human rights and best practices.” Earlier the wife of the deceased, Susanne, told the gathering that her husband was an honourable man as he had served as the Chief Protocol Officer to the Minister of State for Defence for over a decade. She said he was not sick neither was he guilty of the allegations levelled against him. Susanne said she wanted an independent autopsy to ascertain the real cause of her husband’s death even as she explained that she had not seen Desmond’s corpse since his demise. The widow said she was of the belief that her husband was tortured. In his response, Kamara said the objective of AI was to conduct research and generate action to prevent and end grave abuses of human rights and to demand justice for those whose rights have been violated. He promised to assist the family in every way possible by working closely with the police and all other relevant agencies to ensure that justice was done. Kamara revealed that he had even received a request from the AI branch in Germany to investigate the matter. The AI boss added that the organisation would ensure an independent autopsy at no cost to the family or the government. According to the EFCC, the deceased was on June 19, 2016, arrested for allegedly fraudulently obtaining N91m from an acquaintance, Uloma Kalu, after he tricked her into believing that he had high net worth business associates in Dubai who were on the verge of buying Nicon Insurance and convinced her of their disposition to help her stock fish business. The complainant allegedly wired N91m into Nunugwo’s nominated account (Mainagge General Merchants) in Diamond Bank. The deceased was thereafter detained and died six hours later after being rushed to a hospital. A source in the EFCC denied the allegations levelled against the anti-graft agency by the family. He said the EFCC had, in the current dispensation, arrested and tried hundreds of suspects. The source said it was not the tradition of the commission to torture suspects. He said, “While we sympathise with the family, we restate that he was never tortured. We have detained several people who were accused of stealing billions of naira and we never tortured them. Why then would we torture someone who allegedly stole only N91m? “It is very possible that the man died of shock because other detainees said he was pacing up and down and was restless before he slumped. “We rushed him to the hospital and after he died, we promptly reported the matter to the police. We have no power to manipulate the autopsy but I am sure that we will be vindicated after investigations.” Source: Punch]]>