Wives of Missing Ebonyi Engineers Protest at Federal Ministry of Works Over Four-Year Silence

Wives of five engineers employed by NELAN Construction Limited, who were abducted in November 2021 while working on the Abakaliki Ring Road project in Ebonyi State, staged a protest at the Federal Ministry of Works in Abuja on Monday, demanding answers about their husbands nearly four years after the incident.

The missing engineers — Nelson Onyemeh, Ernest Edeani, Ikechukwu Ejiofor, Samuel Aneke, and Stanley Nwazulum — were reportedly kidnapped while supervising construction work on the road, a project funded by the African Development Bank to improve traffic flow and connectivity in the state capital. Families said the prolonged silence and lack of accountability from authorities has compounded their emotional distress.

During the protest, some relatives carried placards calling on the Federal Government and relevant authorities to intervene. Esther Aneke, wife of Samuel Aneke, described the anguish of raising her child without her husband. “Please, I am asking for justice. Please, they should release my husband wherever he is,” she said. The mother of Stanley Nwazulum also appealed for answers, describing the severe impact of her son’s disappearance on the family.

Civil society organisations present urged authorities to pursue the investigation transparently, highlighting broader security concerns in the South-East, where attacks on infrastructure and workers have increased in recent years.

The Federal Ministry of Works, through Director of Human Resources Ahmad Muhammad, stated the case falls primarily under Ebonyi State’s jurisdiction and remains before a court of law. He advised protesters to avoid actions that could interfere with legal proceedings, but families insisted the federal government should intervene due to the international financing and public infrastructure nature of the project.

The abduction took place amid a nationwide surge in kidnappings. Nigeria Security Tracker data show that at least 2,944 people were kidnapped across the country between January and June 2021, reflecting the scale of insecurity during that period.