So sad: Update on the missing Abuja Business Woman, Charity ‘ChaCha’ Aiyedogbon

 Charity Aiyedogbon, an Abuja-based business woman went missing on May 9, 2016. She was popularly known as Deepdeal Chacha Dehammer. 

Her disappearance has been widely publicized and talked about across the country and by Nigerians in diaspora. A massive social media campaign was launched by her friends and well wishers to look for her.

Forty-four-year-old Charity, who is said to be separated from her husband, David, vanished without a trace, without informing anyone of any trip even though a curious message was found on her Facebook wall saying she was going on a road trip.

Her friends who believe she might have been forced to write this on Facebook to make it look as if she indeed travelled, said unpacked luggage in her apartment and a full pot of soup in her kitchen showed that she did not plan to go anywhere.

 Charity, who got married in 1988 at the age of 16, had been separated from her husband, David, for about two years, while her children live with their father.

 

A few days ago, a US-based lawyer, Mr. Emeka Ugwuonye, who took up the campaign for the search of the mother of three and popularly called Deepdeal-Chacha-Dehammer, said “I am sorry to disappoint those who have hoped that Chacha would be found alive and rescued. Without ruling out completely the miracle of her being found alive, our investigation and analysis of the facts, events and occurrences in this case indicate that Chacha is probably dead. We presume she was killed within a few hours of her estimated time of disappearance.”

And just a few minutes ago, the renowned US-based Nigerian lawyer/activist, Barr. Emeka Ugwuonyeannounced that Chacha is dead. 

The lawyer who claimed there has been threat to his life for pursuing justice for Mrs. Aiyedogbon published the following statement on the Facebook page of  The Due Process Advocates (DPA)


Please read…

SUNDAY: FURTHER UPDATE ON JUSTICE FOR CHACHA

Thank you all for your concerns about the revelations I have made on this case. But to put your minds at rest, Chacha’s body has been discovered and it has been identified to a reasonable degree of legal certainty.

Nigerian police actually got Chacha’s body within a day or two after she was brutally murdered, but they were too incompetent and dysfunctional to identify the body. Besides, at that time, nobody had reported Chacha missing. It took about 10 days after her murder before there was any serious concern that she was missing.

If you want to know the exact time line of Chacha’s death, it was shortly before that moment that status update was posted on her wall that she she was going on a road trip.

Once it was confirmed to him that the job was done and that she had been killed, the person who all along had Chacha’s FB password made a status update on her wall saying that she was on a road trip. That post served so many purposes.

First, it was to conceal the fact that Chacha was missing. It was to create a temporary excuse for Chacha’s silence and lack of contact with her friends. Second, by delaying the moment her disappearance would be discovered, it also gave the killers time to dispose of the body. We believe she was killed in the city at night and her body disposed of the following night.

She was not killed at the spot or near the spot where her body was found. Also, evidence suggests that her body was not cut up until nearly 24 hours after she was killed. The killers thought that they were clever. But they are amatures. They left too many clues.

I have received calls and messages from very few people who said: Let’s wait to confirm that she is really dead.

One even told me that I needed to delay and wait for more confirmation in order to avoid risks to my reputation in case she it turns out that she is alive. That is a very twisted and poor manner to view these things. I asked the person: if she is not dead, where do you think she is? Hiding somewhere in the bushes? Or sitting somewhere tied up by some confused kidnappers who don’t know how to demand for ransom.

Now, let us consider the scenarios under which Chacha could show up alive and I would be shamed. If the person I accused of killing her has only been holding her hostage and he decides to release her in order to shame me by showing she is alive while I said she was dead, how does that hurt me? I will be happy my statements forced him to release her.

If Chacha has been hiding in the Abuja jungles and she decides to come out of hiding in order for me to be proven to have lied, that is to my advantage, as it means my ‘false’ statements forced her to come out of hiding.

On the other hand, if she resurrects from death and shows up just in order to prove me wrong, I will be happy. So, I am really not perturbed about the possibility that I could be proven wrong. On the contrary, I am praying to be be wrong.

As I told one guy who expressed these fears to me yesterday, I am not a journalist that simply wants to report a story or an outcome. I am a lawyer fighting to create or achieve the just outcome. so, I will leave others to live in the fantasy island where it will be okay to believe that Chacha is still alive wondering in the shrubs around Abuja.