Twenty-four years after the assassination of the Onitsha branch Chairman of the Nigerian Bar Association, Barnabas Igwe, and his pregnant wife, Amaka, there are renewed calls for the Anambra State Government to revisit the case and bring the alleged perpetrators to justice, Davidson Iriekpen writes
The last is yet to be heard of the gruesome murder of the Chairman of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Onitsha branch, Barnabas Igwe and his pregnant wife, Amaka, on September 1, 2002, in the Awada district of Onitsha, Anambra State.
Igwe was well known for his sharp legal mind and unwavering public criticism of corruption in the state. His wife, also a lawyer, shared both his ideals and his dangers.
The couple was killed as they drove into Onitsha after returning from an NBA conference in Ibadan.
As witnesses later told investigators, the couple’s car was intercepted by armed men who dragged them from their vehicle, hacked them with machetes, shot Barnabas, and drove over their bodies before speeding away.
The assault was swift, calculated, and unrelenting, a message meant not merely to kill but to silence. The incident was soon traced to the toxic atmosphere surrounding Anambra State’s politics at the time.
Governor Chinwoke Mbadinuju’s administration was under mounting criticism for failing to pay civil servants’ salaries and for sponsoring the vigilante group known as the Bakassi Boys.
Under Igwe’s leadership, the Onitsha branch of the NBA had demanded accountability, transparency, and respect for human rights. His courage, rare and dangerous, made him a marked man. The lawyers’ body and other human rights groups heavily accused the Mbadinuju administration of complicity or of shielding the perpetrators. But Governor Mbadinuju and his administration vehemently denied the allegations, maintaining their complete innocence and arguing that political detractors were trying to frame them.
The global watchdog Human Rights Watch later reported “strong, credible evidence” suggesting a political motive behind the killings. The same report linked the murders to a wider pattern of violence against critics of the state government.
In the days that followed, outrage swept the legal community across Nigeria. The NBA declared the killings as an attack on democracy, and on September 10, 2002, it called on the federal government to declare emergency rule in Anambra.
In late June and July 2003, the then Anambra State Commissioner for Works and Transport, Ken Emeakayi, an alleged Onitsha Bakassi camp commander, and 10 others were brought before an Onitsha Chief Magistrate Court in connection with the murders. Later, on November 11, 2003, the Director of Public Prosecutions formally charged 12 suspects. Yet, like many high-profile political cases in Nigeria, the process soon stalled in procedural fog.
No definitive conviction has ever been reported. No official closure has been granted. Families were left with the weight of unanswered questions: Who ordered the hit? Who paid the assassins? And why did justice hesitate?
To many, their murder was more than a tragic headline; it was a measure of how fragile justice could be in the face of political power. Their deaths exposed a dark truth, that those who defend the law in Nigeria often do so without its protection. The NBA still marks their deaths as a symbol of resistance, proof that the voice of justice, though threatened, endures.
In 2022, Governor Chukwuma Soludo asked the former Chairman of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), Professor Chidi Odinkalu’s Truth, Justice, and Peace Commission (TJPC) to unravel the unrest in the state. Membership of the commission included the then Attorney-General of the state, Professor Sylvia Ifemeje and the current Minister of Foreign Affairs, Bianca Odumegwu-Ojukwu, as secretary.
The TJPC had a mandate going back to 1999, which brought the double murder of Barnabas and Amaka Igwe within its purview. When the report was eventually submitted in March 2024, the commission called attention to the especially heinous crimes of the double murder of Barnabas and Amaka Igwe.
It specifically referred to the unfinished prosecution of Emeakayi and asked the state government to review the case with a view to ensuring effective accountability. It also recommended an official apology and symbolic compensation to their children.
Governor Soludo, while receiving the report, promised “swift action based on the commission’s recommendations.”
Six months later, instead of accountability, the same governor appointed the same Emeakayi as his Special Adviser for Community Security. At the beginning of 2025, the state government created a new vigilante militia called Agunechemba ultimately under the command of Emeakayi.
This made Odinkalu, and a security expert, Deji Adesogan, to join others in calling on the Anambra State Government to reopen the case and ensure that all those implicated face due process.
Odinkalu, on his part, questioned the appointment of Emeakayi as Special Adviser on Security to Governor Soludo despite his alleged connection to the killings. He said the commission investigated the Igwes’ murder and recommended that the case be reopened and those implicated brought to account.
The commission’s investigation, he added, linked Emeakayi to the operation and established that the broader operation involved elements of the Bakassi Boys security formation that operated in Anambra at the time.
The former NHRC boss expressed disappointment that Emeakayi was subsequently appointed the governor’s security adviser in October 2024, describing the appointment as a serious blot on the administration’s record.
In the same vein, Adesogan said the issue should not be treated merely as a political controversy, stressing that allegations of such gravity should trigger proper security and legal scrutiny.
“If the governor fails to carry out vetting on one of his aides and later finds out that the person has been fingered in this kind of atrocity, what is expected of the governor is to ensure a quick dispensation of justice. He should ask such a person to step aside,” he said.
Adesogan argued that allowing an individual facing serious allegations connected to a high-profile killing to remain in a sensitive security position could damage not only the governor’s reputation but also the credibility of the state’s security architecture.
However, Anambra State Commissioner for Information and Communication, Law Mefor, has criticised Odinkalu over his calls for accountability concerning Emeakayi’s appointment as Special Adviser on Security. He argued that Emeakayi had never been arrested, investigated, indicted or convicted over the deaths of the Igwes and that Governor Soludo lacked the authority to investigate or prosecute him.
Mefor also accused Odinkalu of prejudging Emeakayi’s guilt, questioning his motives and alleged interest in Anambra affairs. He said Odinkalu had previously made allegations against Emeakayi but failed to appear before a state inquiry to substantiate them.
The inconclusive nature of many murder investigations and prosecutions has become a troubling feature of Nigeria’s justice system. Investigations and cases are abandoned, evidence grows cold, and public attention fades until a fresh government directive revives them.
When crimes, particularly murders, are thoroughly investigated and prosecuted, it actually shows the value leaders attach to human lives. This should be a clarion call for all stakeholders to prevail on the state government and security agencies to recommit themselves to attaching more value to human lives.
Allowing a murderer to go scot-free amounts to emboldening others. This is not good for the society