‘I want justice for my brother’
THE heartbroken sister of a young Nigerian who was abducted, beaten to death and his body dumped in a reservoir, yesterday demanded justice for her brother, declaring: “Black lives matter.”
Mariam Dede, 26, told Cyprus Today her brother, 28-year-old Kennedy, had called on police for help several times before his death on Monday, and urged: “I want justice for my brother, and to know what happened to him.
“This island is quite nasty. Police hear complaints but cannot do anything about them. They should follow up and not only do something for their own citizens, but for foreigners too.”
African students at Eastern Mediterranean University (EMU), where Kennedy Taomwabwa Dede was an architecture student before letting his enrolment lapse last summer, also took to the streets, marching on the EMU Rector’s office to demand justice and saying Mr Dede had told police two weeks ago he was “having a hard time”.
EMU sources said detectives who made six arrests over the killing had already had the suspects under surveillance for possible involvement with drugs.
Police confirmed Mr Dede had approached them for help “some time ago” over money he claimed to be owed, but had been told it was a civil, not criminal, issue, and he needed to go to a lawyer.
Mariam Dede, who graduated from EMU and is now studying for an MA degree at another TRNC university, described her brother as “hard-working, a good athlete, caring and loving . . . a good man . . . [who] never hurt anyone”.
Her voice faltered as she recalled seeing him for the last time on Sunday, when they talked about their 18-year-old sister also coming to North Cyprus to study.
Six people were arrested within hours of Mr Dede’s corpse being spotted in water at the edge of the Çanakkale reservoir by two children walking in the area at about
4.45pm on Tuesday.
Forensic investigators believe he was badly beaten at his home in the Kalliland area of Gazimağusa before being bundled into a car and attacked again at the waterside.
A post-mortem examination confirmed he had died of a brain haemorrhage and lung injuries caused by “blunt force trauma”.
Three TRNC citizens — a 16-year-old girl identified only as “BÇ”, Zekeriya Kurucu, 22, and Ozan Körkurt, 18 — were arrested first on Tuesday night, and two more — a 17-year-old girl identified as “SD” and 21-year-old Onur Körkurt — handed themselves in to police after Aydan Sel, 28, was tracked down in the buffer zone village of Pile on Wednesday night.
Police, who arrested Sel following a tip-off, believe she had been driven to Pile, to pick up clothes and money, by a man they named as Nidai Şanlı, 28. He is wanted as the suspected “instigator” of the attack, and suspected to have fled south through the Akyar border crossing near Gazimağusa.
Turkish Cypriot co-chair of the Bicommunal Technical Committee on Crime Hakkı Önen said they had contacted authorities in the South asking them to put air and sea ports on alert and seeking Şanlı’s return.
All six suspects were yesterday remanded in custody for seven days in a hearing amid tight security at Gazimağusa District Court, where African students gathered to see the accused appear on charges including manslaughter, abduction and assault.
Murat Aktuğralı, head of the university press and public relations unit, said Mr Dede had been at EMU since 2011, but had not enrolled for the last semester, which ended this week.
“Kennedy was a very successful student but then he stopped attending classes regularly,” he said.
Mr Aktuğralı dismissed any suggestion of a racially motivated killing, saying: “We do not consider that this could be true. We have students from many different countries and [they] get on well with each other.”
There are some 11,000 to 12,000 Africans among the TRNC’s 100,000 university students.
Newly sworn-in Prime Minister Tufan Erhürman expressed condolences on social media to Mr Dede’s family and friends, saying: “Everyone who lives, works and studies here is our brother or sister.”
Mr Dede’s body is expected to be returned to his homeland for burial, probably this week.