Wives of missing Ebonyi engineers stage protest at works ministry

Umahi

Wives of five engineers employed by NELAN Construction Limited, who were abducted by armed men in November 2021 while working on the Abakaliki Ring Road project in Ebonyi State, on Monday staged a protest at the Federal Ministry of Works in Abuja.

They demanded answers about the whereabouts of their husbands nearly four years after the incident.

The protest, supported by several civil society organisations, drew attention to what the families described as prolonged silence and lack of accountability from authorities over the fate of the engineers.

The missing engineers — Nelson Onyemeh, Ernest Edeani, Ikechukwu Ejiofor, Samuel Aneke, and Stanley Nwazulum — were reportedly kidnapped in November 2021 while supervising construction work on the Abakaliki Ring Road project.

The road project, designed to ease traffic congestion and improve connectivity within the state capital, was financed by the African Development Bank as part of broader infrastructure investments aimed at boosting economic activity in the region.

At the time of the incident, Ebonyi State was under the administration of former governor Dave Umahi, who currently serves as Nigeria’s Minister of Works under the government of President Bola Tinubu.

The abduction occurred amid growing security concerns in parts of Nigeria’s South-East region, where attacks on public infrastructure, construction workers, and government facilities have become increasingly common in recent years. Punch