She disclosed this to Chude Jideonwo during his show #WithChude while discussing her husband's abduction, the trauma she faced, the support she received, and keeping hope alive that her husband would return.
Eucharia Agbasimalo, the wife of the Labour Party candidate in the Anambra State governorship election in 2021, Obiora Agbasimalo, has revealed that she had a miscarriage when her husband was kidnapped.
She disclosed this to Chude Jideonwo during his show #WithChude while discussing her husband's abduction, the trauma she faced, the support she received, and keeping hope alive that her husband would return.
The LP governorship candidate was abducted on September 18, 2021, at Azia in the Ihiala Local Government Area of the state, while returning from a function, and his whereabouts are still unknown to date.
"My husband went missing in September. On the 18th day of September, I learnt he was on his way to a political function somewhere in Ihiala, Anambra. The report I got was that the vehicle he was in was attacked by some armed hoodlums and then he got kidnapped.
“So, the party, via their spokesperson, the organising secretary in Anambra, Clement Ojukwu, assured my family that they were in communication with the Kidnappers. So, they came out to say it was a political kidnap, but they were communicating with him.
“They were campaigning regardless, even though my husband was missing. Right in the middle of it, I waited. The election came and passed. In the midst of that - my waiting, I went through all kinds of trauma. I had a miscarriage. I was in the hospital for so long.
“When I couldn't hold it anymore, I started posting on social media, trying to get the attention of the right people. My mother-in-law called me and said the party has warned that all of the things I'm doing could get my husband killed."
Sharing in detail the events after her husband's kidnap. She said, "The party wanted me to be silent. They were like, ‘What's my gain if I keep making noise on social media and calling attention, and they just bring me my dead husband because none of them ever called me?’
“The organising secretary didn't take my calls or return them. He refused to talk to me, and I don't know why. Then I was able to reach the national party chairman, Barrister Julius Abure, and I spoke to him and asked, 'What was going on? Where is my husband?' He said they had done what they could at the party level to rescue my husband. He said it ought to be a national issue, and he didn't know why they were also silent about it.' I appealed to him to know how he could help us at the national level, and he said, well, I'm the one who wears the shoe, and I know how it hurts."
Eucharia explained how she reached out to the Intelligence Response Team (IRT) in Abuja, and realised that the party was not in control of the matter as claimed.
She said, "The person who drove my husband that day came back unhurt. When the IRT came to Anambra, the family of the man who drove my husband said he had been kidnapped too, and they were looking for him. Some other people came and said the driver was the chief negotiator between my family and the kidnappers, only for the driver to be arrested in Abuja.”
"I was so pained that, 'four days before that election in Anambra, you had no idea where your flagbearer was, and you were campaigning so elaborately, claiming and even boasting that you would win the election.’ Even when I went to the poll on that day, no one including INEC (Independent National Electoral Commission) was informed," she added.
She spoke about her meeting with the Commissioner of Police who informed her that the party members sent a voice note, claiming her husband wasn't missing, that he wasn’t kidnapped but was in Lagos with his wife.
“This made them think the whole situation was a political stunt to get pitiful votes," she said.
"My husband is gone just like a chicken, and these people are staring at me in the eye, telling me I can do nothing, and I won't find justice anywhere," she said.