N35m needed to return body of Nigerian student – Ministry

• On Tuesday, the Director Consular, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Enya Francis, said the ministry was in close contact with the Embassy in the Philippines and was on top of the situation

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs stated that repatriating the remains of Chibuikem Emmanuel, the Nigerian medical student murdered in the Philippines on October 23, 2023, by purportedly Chinese nationals, will incur a cost of N35 million.

This information was shared on the social networking platform X by Michael Ojuola, a friend of Emmanuel.

Ojuola had posted on X that the victim was “brutally murdered” by a group of Chinese.

“They tied his hands up, covered and tied his mouth and beat him blue-black until he gave up the ghost,” he wrote.

On Tuesday, the Director Consular, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Enya Francis, said the ministry was in close contact with the Embassy in the Philippines and was on top of the situation.

According to a statement by the spokesperson for Nigerians in Diaspora Commission, Abdur-Rahman Balogun, Francis spoke during an investigative hearing on the matter by the Senate.

“Ikem’s corpse is yet to be buried as it will cost between N31m and N35m to repatriate and bury the corpse in Nigeria as against N10m to N15m to cremate it in the Philippines,” Francis was quoted to have said.

He emphasized that the daily cost of holding the corpse at the funeral home was accumulating at N30,000, underscoring the urgency to expedite the investigation and take necessary measures.

Blessing Essien, Emmanuel’s elder sister, highlighted his status as the family’s only son, expressing the family’s desire to honor Igbo tradition by bringing his body back to Nigeria for a fitting burial. She appealed to the Federal Government, specifically through the Senate committees, for assistance in repatriating the remains.

Chairman of NiDCOM, Abike Dabiri-Erewa, informed the Senate Joint Committees on Diaspora and Inter-Governmental Affairs and Foreign Affairs that Emmanuel’s employer in the Philippines, along with five others, had been charged with murder.

Updating the committee led by Senator Victor Umeh, she reported the Nigerian embassy’s actions, including notifying the Department of Foreign Affairs in the Philippines and involving the Inspector General of the Philippines National Police. Dabiri-Erewa explained that the police had concluded evidence gathering, presenting the case to the Mandaue City Prosecuting Department, which opted for murder charges.