2004 Kano riot: Family of slain corper demands compensation

The family of Mr. Chukwunwike Orafu, the corps member, who was allegedly murdered by suspected fundamentalists in Kano State in 2004, has petitioned President Goodluck Jonathan, demanding compensation over the death of their only son. The family also queries government’s inability to find their son’s corpse since the 2004 Kano religious riot and its refusal to compensate them.


The family’s letter to the president, signed by the slain NYSC’s next of kin, Mr Sam Onyechi, came as the Federal Government announced compensation for  the death of some corps members, killed in the North during the just concluded general elections.
The Orafu family said they had been treated unjustly, adding  that government was insensitive to their plight, as it failed to recover his body despite several mails to the NYSC authorities over the matter.
“We forward this petition to your esteemed office over the horrible murder and subsequent unsatisfactory manner, the untimely death of our brother, cousin and ward, Mr Chukwunwike  Orafu, was handled by the NYSC and the Kano State government of Mallam Ibrahim Shekarau, after he was brutally murdered by rampaging Muslim youths in Kano  on  April 11, 2004 while he was on Youth Service.
“It will not be out of place to say that our Chike was the first NYSC martyr and should be known officially as that. It is, therefore, very saddening and a reopening of old wounds, when we learnt of your humane gestures of personal contact and recognition of the families of the recently slain colleagues of our dear brother with proper and due compensations paid to the bereaved families while our brother lies unsung, unmourned and unrecognised somewhere in the wilderness of Kano,” he added.