It’s four months today that Facebook friends of Charity Aiyedogbon fondly called ‘Deepdeal Chacha De Hammer’ raised the alarm that they have not heard from her after she posted a picture on her facebook page on May 9 with caption ‘Road Trip’.
For these women who have come to know the free spirited Chacha, it was unlike her to go silent for days without either sharing a picture, putting up a post or communicating with any of them.
And so started a search for her that has yielded no results four months after. From the fear of uncertainty to the silence of many people who didn’t want to be involved in her case to the way her personal life was put on display for Nigerians to judge, her case is one mysterious one.
This was what was posted on August 20 on Justice for Charity Aiyedogbon Facebook Page:
”As the days go by, our quest to find out what happened to our friend Charity goes cold. People with information have refused to speak, the police has failed us, the legal system has failed us.
If people can disappear just like that then ALL of us need to be afraid for our lives.
That one day God forbid, we can be murdered and disposed of and there won’t be anything anyone can do about it. Even if there is evidence, even if there is proof, because of corruption, greed and power, we will get zero justice and our souls will lay in turmoil.
This is the last plea, to anyone who knows where charity is or what has happened to her or any info that can help us lay her to rest in peace … To please come forward.
She deserves a burial. She deserves justice.
God created us all. No man has the right to cause the death of another human being.
We are not afraid, but we are anonymous so that our efforts will not be stopped.
We belong to no group. We are a handful of men and women, young and old. Some of us knew Chacha and some of us are merely concerned citizens with no prior knowledge of this woman. The one thing we have in common is compassion. We care and so should you.
Where are Charity’s friends? Where are her phones? Her car? Who last saw her alive? The last two phone calls she made, whose numbers are those?
Her family said she’s alive and hiding. Her daughter married without her mom present. Have they heard from her yet? How many years of silence do they need to know that Charity is dead.
What happened to the body that was found? DNA? Test of the hairs? Nails? Teeth?
Where is everyone? How can a death so brutal and with so much evidence online go so cold?
If we fail at this, We pray that God in his infinite mercies will bring justice to Charity.
One message for the killer(s): we promise you that God will visit you and what you dish out is definitely what you will receive. A confession won’t even save you. You are walking corpses. Good day.”
Chacha has had a hard life. She was married to David Aiyedogbon at 16 and had four children. But the ironic part was that even with all the social media campaign about her disappearance, her children went on with their lives as if nothing happened.
Her daughter Juliet Aiyedogbon even publicly attacked those who called her out on her attitude regarding her mother’s disappearnce. She would later stop a planned walk organized by members of the facebook group, Females in Nigeria (FIN) where her mother shared her story about the abuses she suffered in her marriage for years until she called it quits.
Juliet Aiyedogbon told the group members that they should allow the police do their jobs and that the planned walk would interfere with police investigations.
Even when a US based Lawyer, Emeka Ugwuonye was contacted to unravel the mystery surrounding Chacha’s disappearance, drama heightened. Emeka accused David Aiyedogbon of killing and decapitating his ex wife’s body. But David debunked the claims and his daughter supported him.
Amid social media campaigns demanding justice for Aiyedogbon, Juliet took to Facebook in June, claiming that her mother was alive. She was even planning her marriage then to the surprise of many who saw her behaviour as insensitive.
She said in one of her posts which was later taken down: “Now my mum is missing. We, the family, have evidence from investigation that my mum is alive. I am working with it to find her. The police is working hard on this case, and honestly we are getting positive results,” she said in a Facebook post she later took down.
There have been reports that the Aiyedogbon and her husband, David, had an unresolved misunderstanding that even led to physical assaults.
But Juliet, who #JusticeforChacha campaigners accused of employing desperate antics to save her father, said, “My dad has put their disagreements aside and has been at the forefront of to find my mother. You can’t love my mum more than the family.”
She also challenged those who claimed to have found her mother’s corpse to produce it for a DNA.
“Stop cooking up stories and joining people to say negative things about my dad, mum and siblings. It is very unfair,” she noted, saying those who were out to destroy the reputation of her family would face the wrath of God
If the post was surprising, many would find the manner in which it was deleted puzzling. The post thus added a new twist to the drama the incident has caused on digital media, with many people criticizing Juliet.
That was not the first time Juliet would be facing a social media backlash over her missing mother. When her pre-wedding photographs surfaced on the internet, those who have shared the plight of her family took her up, asking why she deemed it appropriate to continue the wedding process.
And considering that a social media ‘manhunt’ was initially promoted by Juliet’s siblings, her attack on sympathisers has raised several questions.
At that time, over 40,000 people, according to Facebook, were talking about the disappearance of Aiyedogbon and the controversies it has caused. That was how much interest Juliet’s post has received.
