The
time was 3.46pm on Sunday 14h October 2012.The CKN Nigeria crew made its way
into the expansive compound of the Mr & Mrs Onyema Biringa’s Mgbuoba area off
Ada George road ,Port Harcourt, River State.
Our
mission was to commensurate with the family on the loss of their first son
Chiadika Biringa, a second year student of Theater Arts ,University of Port
Harcourt who was gruesomely murdered alongside three of his friends at Aluu
community of the State.
On
our arrival inside the tastely furnished sitting room, already seated were
members of the St Matthew Anglican Church mgbuoba, Port Harcourt (where they
worship) that also came on a condolence visit.
CKN
Nigeria crew had to join the prayers which were already in progress. The lead
Pastor of the Church asked the family to see the incident as a passing phase in
the life of the family. He urged them to be strong for each other and to take
care of their three remaining sons.
The
prayer ended with an admonition that the perpetrators of the crime will be
caught and brought to book.
While
the prayer was going on, more sympathizers were trooping in, making it extremely
difficult to have a one on one interview with the couple.
Finally,
we were able to corner the couple into talking about their experience since the
murder of their son, in what will be one of the most comprehensive, factual and
insight interview ever conducted by any Nigerian media after the incident.
CKN Nigeria:Kindly accept our heartfelt condolence on
your loss.
Mr and Mrs Biringa:Thank you and thanks for coming
CKN Nigeria:Can we meet you please.
The Biringas:I am Mr Onyema Biringa,a native of Umuokoroma
Umungwa in Obowo LGA of Imo State.My wife Chinwe Biringa is a native of Awgu in
Enugu State. Chiadika is the first of our four sons.
CKN Nigeria:Who is Chiadika
The Biringas…Chiadika is a lovely young boy,full of life
and ambition. He was a boy that had so much ahead of him.He is fun to be
with.Ask anyone that knew him..He is the type that once he enters here,you will
feel his presence. Academically also , he was ahead of his peers.
He was multi talented.
CKN Nigeria:How did you receive the news
The Biringas:The news came to us as a huge shock and unbelievable.
He never told u he had any quarrel with anyone.It was so shocking when we heard
the news..Initially, we thought it was a joke,but the reality of the incident
dawned on us when we saw the lifeless body.
CKN Nigeria : What actually happened because we have
heard of various versions of the incident?
The Biringas: Well ,according to what we were able to piece
together. Four of them were good friends. We knew the others parents..They were
always together.
According to what we gathered, somepone was owing
UGONNA some money,as its usual with peer groups, they decided to go and seek
the debt. They went to stay with Tekena’s niece IBINABO for the night at Aluu
so that they can go early to see the guy for the money.
They went there according to some witnesses at about
7am in the morning (Not 4am) as reported in some quarters.
On meeting the person ,instead of sorting out the issue
with them amicable, he raised an alarm that the four were robbers who came to
rob him.
The alarm attracted the vigilante group in the area who
surrounded and started beating the boys without even hearing their own side of
the story.
They were thoroughly beaten and marched to the house of
the clan head, one Alhaji who gave a judgement that they should be “DEALTH WITH”.
The people now marched them to a place,beat them to a
stupor and set fire on them till they died (At this point,Mrs Biringa was
crying uncontrollably)..We had to stop the interview.
After about 15 Minutes, the interview resumed
CKN Nigeria:Did they found anything with them?
The Biringa’s: Absolutely nothing was found on
them..The boy told the crowd that they came to steal his laptop and phones ,but
here is the laptop.
Also look at it from this point, how will four people
use one laptop. In whose possession would it be.
How would they alternate it. My son had his personal
laptop right from when he was in JSS 1,so what will he be doing with another
person’s laptop.
It was a fabricated lie,put together to give a dog a
bad name in order to hang it.
CKN Nigeria:We read that Chidiaka has been buried..Why
the rush ?
The Biringas :It was our decision to bury him as quickly as
possible. The tumor was too much for us to bear. One of our brother Dr Eke, provided
the ambulance and also prepared his body for burial.
We took his body home , where he was buried in our
compound in Umungwa Obowo (Imo State).
CKN Nigeria:Did you ever had an incline of what was
going to happen?
The Biringa’s: Absolute NO…Chidiaka has always told me (mum)
that he will be a star.That I should watch out,that the whole world will get to
know about him.He has recorded some songs with his friends,which is presently
on the internet..Infact Silverbird has agreed to take over the songs and do
some videos out of it.
But never knew his words were philosophical. I never
wanted his popularity to come in this form.
CKN Nigeria:How do you assess the role of the Police in
all this?
The Biringa:while all these were going on,we were told the
policemen were there. No single shot of tear gas was fired to disperse the mob.
No bullet was fired into the air to scare away the
blood thirsty mob.It was rather unfortunate.
CKN Nigeria:How are the other parents taking it?.
The Biringa’s: We are all in this together. One of the
boys was an only son out a family of six.Do you know that Ugonna’s dad even
bought him a car,a week before he was killed.Infact the lady that got the car
registered brought the papers to the house only to be told that the boy was
killed that day.
CKN Nigeria:What next now?
The Biringa:We ll continue to cry for justice. Now the
evidence is out that the boys were not robbers. They were boys from good home
with respectable parents in the society.
We will continue to cry for Justice.We have petitioned
the National Assembly.One of the parents have even vowed not to bury their son
until justice is done.
CKN Nigeria: How are you sure that this investigation
will not go the same way like the ones before it
The Biringa’s: Anyone that tries to bury the story and
incident will have same fate awaiting him or her in Jesus name.
CKN Nigeria:Any last word
The Biringa’s:Yes,we ll like to use this opportunity to
thank all Nigerians,home and abroad who have stayed by us since this
unfortunate incident occurred. We are grateful for the love and prayers.May God
continue to be with them.
We also thank most especially the Nigeria Media for the
job they have done so far by keeping it on the front burner. May god continue
to bless you all .Our prayer is that their death will not be in vain in Jesus
name.
CKN Nigeria: Thank you for making out time to speak
with us.
The Biringa’s:Thanks CKN Nigeria