Dede in plea for closure on her brother’s death
THE devastated sister of a Nigerian man who was abducted and beaten to death in Gazimağusa has spoken of the personal toll of dealing with the aftermath of his killing.
The body of Kennedy Taomwabwa Dede, 28, was discovered lying in water at the edge of the Çanakkale reservoir by two children on January 30, the day after he had been killed.
A post-mortem examination revealed that he had died of a brain haemorrhage and lung injuries caused by a “blunt force trauma”.
Seven suspects have been arrested in connection with the case, including three teenagers, and are being held in custody on charges including murder, manslaughter, assault and abduction.
Making a fresh call for justice, Mr Dede’s younger sister Miriam said in an emotional social media video plea that she had “a lot of pain inside . . . just too much”.
During the video, which has been viewed over 6,000 times, distraught Ms Dede speaks of the pressure of trying to comprehend her brother’s death.
Breaking down several times while being filmed, she says: “You don’t really know what to say, like, you have a lot of questions and you can’t really have the answers and you keep questioning and nobody is really saying anything.
“I can remember being called for this incident and I had no idea what I was in for. All of a sudden I’m just there standing right next to his corpse before I started getting an explanation and I was asking what was happening and nobody was really actually talking to me.
“And to hear that he was murdered in cold blood; it’s actually really something painful. I could remember getting scared to even walk back home because I was looking at the white person right next to me and I’m getting scared of, like, what’s really happening down here?”
Ms Dede, who graduated from Gazimağusa’s Eastern Mediterranean University (EMU) and is now studying for a master’s degree at another TRNC university, said she had decided to make the direct plea because she had been “misrepresented most of the time” by some quarters of the media.
“The news just wants to make headlines and stuff,” she added.
“I’ve been to the police stations to get answers to what really is happening and I don’t really get any closure on anything . . . because even right from the very outset the police . . . have been keeping things concealed and claiming they are under investigation and stuff.”
During the eight-minute clip, Ms Dede tells of the pressure of being her family’s “only contact down here” and being unable to tell them what is happening.
“The whole thing is that you’re hurting and you have to deal with it,” she says before stopping to close her eyes and hold her head in her hands.
“Sorry
Idon’t know what to say. Because they’re all looking at everything . . . some people get to go back home to their loved ones after everything has died down but some of us don’t get to live normal lives because this thing is really affecting us.
“We have to continue with the pain . . . because we’ve lost a brother. I personally have lost a brother . . . he was the only brother I had and now he’s been taken away from me.
“But one thing I want to know for sure is that if there is anything left out of the humanity out there, you should stand for justice . . . Let me know that those people that actually took the life of my brother have been put to justice and [that] served.
“I would like everybody to do everything in [their] power to just see that justice is . . . served.”
The video of Ms Dede speaking, with Turkish subtitles, was posted on Facebook by a new group called the Voice of International Students in Cyprus (Vois), which “provides international students the opportunity to share the good and bad experiences they face in Cyprus”.
Vois says the aim of the video was “not to defame North Cyprus or North Cyprus people” or incite “racial hatred of white people or incite any kind of violence” but to “give a voice to Miriam to express her emotions”. justice is being