Dr. Uyi Iluobe Inspector General of Police Usman Baba
…We’ve not gotten the main culprits but have their identities – Police
…All of us are broken emotionally – Dr. Uyi’s grieving widow
By Louis Achi
Responding to inquiry on updates by the Africa Health Report, AHR, on the killing of Dr. Uyi Iluobe on December 9, 2022, the Police PRO, Delta State, Bright Edafe said the police was yet to arrest the main culprits who are at large but had their identities.
“We have not gotten the main culprits yet but we have their identities which we cannot make public for now. We are still suspecting them. So making it public will be against their rights. Also making it public will endanger our investigations,” Edafe told AHR.
Dr. Iluobe was violently killed in the consulting room of his medical facility in Delta State. It is 70 days since the mystery killing and pretty little has been unraveled to demystify the homicide and rope in the culpable parties.
Uyi was the Chief Medical Director of Olivet Clinic, a private medical facility in Oghara, Ethiope West LGA, Delta State, Nigeria.
A month after his death, AHR had asked the police spokesman for updates on the investigation. He stated then that, “There is no further updates yet. We are still investigating. We don’t want to disclose what we have found out yet until we are ready to parade those that were involved. I can assure you that we are progressing.”
When AHR widened its search for reactions from relatives of the late medical doctor, a dispirited Mr. Mathew Onome Akhabue brought some insight into the foggy situation.
“Dr. Uyi is my brother-in-law. That is – he is my wife’s immediate elder brother,” an obviously upset Mathew Akhabue told AHR.
“So far, absolutely nothing has happened. We have not heard anything from the police. Since I read the last African Health Report story on my in-law’s murder over two months ago, nothing has happened. Nothing at all has happened. As I speak, they don’t even have contact with the family. I don’t know whether they are doing underground investigation. I simply don’t know.”
He further states he had no idea what the Nigerian Medical Association, NMA, is doing to force resolution of his in-law’s violent death. NMA is the umbrella platform that defends the interest of medical doctors in Nigeria and intervenes when untoward challenges confront their members.
According to Akhabue, “The NMA at the moment appears divided on the subject matter. The Benin Chapter appear to be more serious than the Delta Chapter about the whole unfortunate development. The Delta State Chapter is not even saying anything about it.
“Because Dr. Uyi was practicing in Delta State, directly or indirectly they have to be involved in the matter because they have a role to play. But being that he is from Benin and has many friends there, the Benin Chapter took up the matter more seriously.
“The Delta Chapter appears far less so involved. They appear to resent the energy the Benin Chapter is bringing to the issue. Nobody knows where these things are coming from.
“If it’s coming from the NMA itself for example, maybe they will not take it seriously. Governor Okowa who is a medical doctor himself has not said much about this. Maybe it’s the politics distracting him.”
Has he been in touch with his late in-law’s wife? Ahkabue responds that she is devastated and like all of the family she is also seeking justice. His words: “She like all of us has not seen the justice we are looking for. Not even a single arrest has been made. She is feeling very terrible about this situation. She cries every day. This matter is very serious and heard everywhere and even abroad and nothing much has been done about it. She is devastated.”
When AHR reached out to the deceased Dr. Iluobe’s grieving widow Blessing, herself also medical doctor, she revealed that for her and some members of her family confusion was setting in.
“NMA messed up everything in the first place. NMA held a meeting. They were supposed to go on strike. They were supposed to start from Delta State because that was where it happened.
NMA Delta State Chapter was supposed to lead the warning strike first. Then if there was no response from the government in terms of fast-tracking arrest of the assailants within ten days then NMA South-South Zone will now join the strike.
“That was NMA’s agreement. NMA Delta agreed and when they got to a point, they refused to go on strike and started singing a different song saying they can actually influence the government without a strike. They refused to go on strike.
“And because they refused to go on strike in line with the meeting they had with the South-South caucus, the South-South Zone refused to go on strike. They became handicapped because they said there was nothing they could do. They said you cannot cry more that the bereaved.
“NMA Delta was supposed to start the strike and NMA South-South would then join. But NMA Delta backed out when they got to Delta. Maybe this was politically motivated. I just don’t know. Up to this point nothing has been done. Up till this point I have not heard anything from any of them.”
On what grounds she feels the police have covered in unravelling the violent killers of her husband, she told AHR that “Nobody is in touch with me. I have called them severally; they will say that they are still on it; they are still on it. There is absolutely nothing that has been done up till this point.”
On the family front and how she is coping and what emotional support the husband’s family were extending to her, she told AHR that all family members are emotionally broken.
“All of us are all broken emotionally. Not only me. It’s really all of us. Everybody in the family is deeply affected. There is nothing we can do. We are simply trying to see whether justice can be done. We are even confused.
On what grounds she feels the police have covered in unravelling the violent killers of her husband, she told AHR that “Nobody is in touch with me. I have called them severally; they will say that they are still on it; they are still on it. There is absolutely nothing that has been done up till this point.”
On the family front and how she is coping and what emotional support the husband’s family was extending to her, she told AHR that all family members are emotionally broken.
“All of us are all broken emotionally. Not only me. It’s really all of us. Everybody in the family is deeply affected. There is nothing we can do. We are simply trying to see whether justice can be done. We are even confused.
Dr. Iluobe’s violent death had initially sparked considerable uproar and conspiracy theories across the state with NMA threatening to start a protest industrial action.
But 70 days after the gruesome murder, little progress has been made to resolve the mystery and bring the culprits to book. The police have not covered much ground or registered clear breakthroughs in cracking the homicide.
On the other hand, the Nigerian Medical Association, NMA, the vanguard organization that is supposed to put its big feet down and pressure for justice appears divided and ineffective.
Meanwhile for the late doctor’s grieving widow and broken family, it’s morning yet on creation day.
