The body of Simon Obodo, the 35-year-old Nigerian killed in Goa, India on October 31 will arrive in Nigeria on Thursday, a representative of the family said on Tuesday.
Ejike Esinkonye disclosed this in a telephone interview with the News Agency of Nigeria in Abuja.
Esinkonye said: “We are still having some logistics problem but we are hopeful that his body will be at the Port Harcourt International Airport by Thursday.”
He expressed concern that the Indian Government had not implemented any of the demands of the family after Obodo’s murder and the protests that followed his gruesome killing.
He said: “We talked about the unconditional release of Nigerians who were arrested in Goa because they protested the murder of Simon Obodo.
“All the people who regained their freedom paid 50,000 rupees, an equivalent of $1,000 and we are not happy that the Nigerian Government did nothing about this.
“We talked about the responsibilities left behind by Obodo – his aged mother, his children and wife.
“The Federal Government promised to draw the attention of the Indian Government to this and see what can be done but up till now, nothing has been done.”
Esinkonye, who was part of a delegation of the Ohaji Egbema community in Imo State that met the Acting Minister of Foreign Affairs, Prof. Viola Onwuliri, in Abuja on November 25, warned that the youths in the area were running out of patience.
He said: “Our youths are still very angry that Indians living in Egbema community are walking about freely while nothing has been done to assuage the feelings of our people over the murder of Simon Obodo.”
He said the family had resorted to selling of property to foot the bills of repatriating Obodo’s corpse home.
Esinkonye claimed that the family had yet to receive any response to a request for assistance put forward to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
He said: “My family is in pain, my community is in pain over the death of one of the brightest and they should not expect us to bear this pain alone.
“Simon Obodo was a bona fide law-abiding Nigerian before he was murdered in India.”
On November 25, Onwuliri had announced that the Federal Government would dispatch a high-level delegation to India this week to sign three agreements with the Indian Government on the safety of all Nigerians in that country.
The minister, who described the death of the Nigerian as reprehensible, listed the agreements as the Mutual Legal Assistance, Extradition Treaty and Transfer of Prisoners.
She also appealed for calm and restraint after youths of Ohaji Egbema community in Imo State threatened reprisal attacks against Indians working in oil companies in the community.
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