Wives and relatives of five engineers abducted in Ebonyi State while working on the Abakaliki Ring Road project have staged a protest at the Federal Ministry of Works in Abuja, demanding clarity on the fate of their loved ones after years of silence.

The engineers, all staff of NELAN Construction Limited, were seized by armed men while supervising sections of the African Development Bank–funded road, a flagship infrastructure project intended to ease traffic and boost economic activity around Abakaliki. They are identified as Nelson Onyemeh, Ernest Edeani, Ikechukwu Ejiofor, Samuel Aneke and Stanley Nwazulum.

The families, joined by civil society organisations, accused both state and federal authorities of failing to provide meaningful updates on investigations or to take responsibility for the workers’ safety on an internationally financed public project.

Carrying placards and photographs of the missing men, the protesters marched to the ministry’s headquarters, insisting that the government owes them answers. For many of the women, the demonstration was a last resort after years of unanswered petitions and fruitless visits to security agencies.

Among them was Esther Aneke, whose husband, engineer Samuel Chibike Aneke, left their home in Adamawa for the Ebonyi site while she was in early pregnancy. She told officials she has neither seen him nor his remains, and pleaded for justice and official confirmation of his fate.

The mother of 33-year-old engineer Stanley Nwazulum also spoke of the economic and emotional toll of his disappearance, explaining that her son had been responsible for her medical bills before he vanished.

Human rights advocates at the protest framed the case as emblematic of Nigeria’s wider kidnapping crisis, particularly in the South-East, where attacks on road projects and public infrastructure have disrupted construction and endangered workers.

Responding to the demonstrators, the Director of Human Resources at the ministry, Ahmad Muhammad, said the matter was already before a court and fell primarily under the jurisdiction of the Ebonyi State government, not the federal ministry. He urged the families to avoid actions that might be seen as interfering with legal proceedings.

The protesters rejected that position, arguing that the federal government cannot distance itself from a project it now oversees through the current Minister of Works, who was governor of Ebonyi when the abductions occurred. They vowed to continue pressing for transparency, a credible investigation and official recognition of the engineers’ disappearance.