Group Wants Slain Corps Members Honoured

A group, Our Change Has Come, has called on the Federal Government to immortalise corps members killed during the recent post-election violence that engulfed Bauchi, Kaduna, Kano and Niger states.

The group made this call during a march to celebrate the lives of slain corps members, particularly, Ikechukwu Ukeoma.

Spokesman of the group, Pastor Idowu Ogedengbe said the affected corps members should be immortalised for their supreme sacrifice towards the emergence of a new electoral institution and processes in Nigeria. “Although these young men are dead, the cause for which they laid down their lives continues to live on and must not be allowed to die.We demand that every 18 April be recognised as a remembrance in memory of the slain national heroes,” he said.

In his own speech, Pastor Iyke Onwurah called on government to bring the culprits to book, to serve as a deterrent to others who might be inclined to perpetrate similar violence in the future. He also sought compensation for the families of the deceased.

Mr. Ifeanyi Okoye, Managing Director, His Grace Network Limited, who is also the guardian of Ikechukwu, expressed deep loss on the killing of his brother. “Ikechukwu lived with me since 2003. He worked in our company. I spoke with him few minutes before he was killed. He said we should continue to pray for him; that the CPC supporters asked him to allow underage voters to vote and that he should stamp and release unused ballot papers which he refused. When I tried to reach him later, it was a mallam who picked his phone, saying: “I don kill my brother, my brother don die.” It was then that I knew something was wrong,” he stated.

The name of the group was coined from the last comment posted by Ikechukwu on facebook: “To be a voice of hope, moulding destinies, becoming models to this generation and generations yet unborn, to all corps members who stood despite these threats, especially in the north, bravo! Nigeria! Our Change Has Come.”