The body of Caleb Obari, the 21-year-old Nigerian graduate of a Ukrainian university, has been found in Odesa Oblast.
Obari’s body was found on September 12, 2020, near the coastline in Chornomorsk, a port city in Odesa Oblast, Ukraine, almost three weeks after his disappearance on August 20, 2020, while on a boat trip in Odesa.
The police say the cause of death is yet to be established but they have opened an investigation into what has been reported as an accident.
According to the Odesa volunteer group called Rescue Platform 911, Obari was invited to a party on a boat by Vera Topalova, the owner of a bar in Odesa.
Out of 10 passengers on the boat, Obari was the only foreigner, as revealed by Alexander Sopelnik, head of Rescue Platform 911.
The boat sailed from the Sauvignon Yacht Club in Odesa, making a distance of four kilometers out from the coast. It came back without Obari.
Obari’s friend waited for him after the party ended and when the boat returned without him, other passengers handed over his personal belongings (including a mobile phone) to him without explaining what happened.
Six days after his disappearance, Topalova wrote a Facebook post, giving her account of what happened on the boat. She claimed she did not invite Obari to the party, saying she has known for over 6 months.
She revealed that he had gone swimming in the sea with some of the other guests and that he went missing some minutes later.
At the onset, members of the Rescue Platform 911 stated that none of the passengers of the boat said that Obari drowned, adding that Obari’s friends said that he couldn’t swim.
A rally clamoring for justice for Obari had taken place on August 31, 2020, near the Nigerian Embassy and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Kyiv.
