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From Okey Sampson, Umuahia
The term, ‘Unknown Gunmen’ crept into Nigeria’s crime lexicon few years back when unidentified gunmen, in the most brutal manner, started attacking government establishments and institutions, killing, maiming and destroying. The hoodlums’ modus operandi remains clandestine, mostly carried out in the cover of the night.
However, a new twist recently came to the fore in the ‘unknown gunmen’ saga when a Rev Canon of African Gospel Church Inc., Dr. Chidi Ubani Irobi was arrested in Abia State, together with four of his bodyguards near a polling unit on the day of the presidential election. They were subsequently tagged unknown gunmen.
Dr. Irobi is also a member of the Abia State University Teaching Hospital (ABSUTH) Management Board. He narrated the sad events of that February 25 2023 to the reporter.
He said on February 25, during the presidential election, he was at home with others in his hometown at Itu Ikeala in Itungwa community, Obingwa Local Government Area, when there was uproar in the whole village. He recalled that it was alleged that immediately INEC people arrived for the election, some people came in an Abia State Government owned Toyota Prado, and that they were sharing money to voters in the area to influence them.
Rev Irobi said as the first callers were still narrating to him what was happening, some old women also came, urging him to do something to stop the ugly scenario.
The clergyman disclosed that since the town’s traditional ruler, Eze A.A Orji, a retired Deputy Commissioner of Police was late, and his people had trust in him, there was nothing he could do than to listen to their cries.
“I had to listen to the complaints of the old women and I left with them to know actually what happened, and my four guards followed me.
“On getting to the polling unit which is close to my house, I saw what I never expected. That some people who came in an ABSG Prado SUV, accompanied by the police, were sharing money and asking people where to vote.
“I asked those sharing the money to stop that because it was happening opposite my house and polling unit. Within few minutes, I saw some people in uniform discussing. Before long, another set of men in uniform from the CTU came and the young man that was sharing the money called the ADC to the governor on phone. The next thing was for the CTU men to say that my guards and myself were under arrest.
“The funny aspect of the whole thing was that my guards were far off from the area because I know it was by law wrong for an unaccredited arm-bearing person to come close to the polling unit during election, so, my guards were sitting inside the vehicle we went in, waiting for me to come back. It was there that the police went and arrested them.”
By mere questioning why those who came with the Abia State Government number plate SUV should be sharing money and telling prospective voters where to cast their votes, Rev Irobi said he never knew he had touched the lion’s tail.
“Before you knew it, they had whisked me and the boys to the Eastern Ngwa Police Station. But before we could get there, there was another vehicle waiting. We were then taken to Umuahia.”
He said that was when the real trouble started for him and his four VGN guards.
Hear him: “On our getting to Umuahia, the Deputy Commissioner of Police was sitting down. They didn’t allow me to explain to him. The next thing he said was ‘take them to the anti kidnapping unit’.
“As the DC gave the order, the police that brought us to his office were manhandling me, slapping me left and right before the DC who could not even ask them to stop.”
Irobi said before he could say anything, they put all of them inside the cell where he alleged they were given the beatings of their lives. “It was grace from the man in charge of the unit that saved us. He said, get your people informed that you are here, otherwise, you will be in for real trouble you may not come from. I had to call people I knew.”
That provided temporary reprieve for Irobi and his men, but could not achieve their freedom.
“The following day, my lawyer came to bail me. The police said no, it was Governor’s case, so they could not grant me bail. In fact, I was so sick, I went to the police clinic, their doctor seeing me, granted me three days bed rest there. I said no, I can’t stay three days in such a place, I have a doctor.”
Irobi said he wanted to see the police commissioner, but the latter refused to see him. He said he was later allowed to go home to get treated as advised by the police doctor.
The following morning, the clergyman said he received a call from the police that he was needed in Umuahia again. “I said somebody who is being treated under your medical advice and reference. What for?
“Well, I went to Umuahia. I waited for the CP till 11am to see me. He didn’t. The next thing was that we were detained again for days with my guards who are personnel of VGN. We were labelled unknown gunmen and I as the first suspect. The idea was for us to be eliminated.”
He was later released on bail along with his guards. But Irobi said no doubt said what happened to him had political undertones, which he said he deduced through what happened later while still in police custody.
“As the police detained me, my manager called to tell me that the state government had removed the machines they were using in fixing the bad stretch of a strategic road in the city where my filling station is located.
“I asked, why were they stopping the reconstruction of the road? I’m not a politician. I was not in any way playing politics and of course, politics should not be taken that far. I wasn’t contesting for anything, but to detect that something is wrong, was it a crime? I think that was the only crime I committed.”
The clergyman opined that even if he was politicking by his action, the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) which he belonged to, ought to have been the ultimate beneficiary.
“Over the years, I have been a member of PDP and I still have their card. I have not deviated. But will that cause me not to call a wrong, a wrong?
The VGN personnel arrested alongside Dr. Irobi and described as unknown gunmen, said they were not unknown gunmen, but duly registered members of VGN and deployed to Irobi’s country home by their commandant.
A letter dated February 17, and signed by Eugene Akwarandu, the commandant for Obingwa aptly attested to their claim.
The four VGN personnel are Asonye Emmanuel Chinedu, 35, Chukwudi Stephen, 25, Chisom Nwanjuobi, 22, and Destiny China, 27.
The VGN men told Saturday Sun that being abreast of the electoral law, they did not go near the polling unit, but were surprised that the police on sighting them inside their boss’s car afar off, arrested them even when they were in uniform and labelled them unknown gunmen, a claim they vehemently denied.
Some indigenes of Itungwa community attested to the uprightness of their son, Dr. Irobi, saying he can never hurt a fly.
Ndubuisi Nwabekee and Joel are from the same Itungwa community as Irobi and they have this to say about him. “He is a man of the people who has used his resources to touch the lives of the poor in the area and beyond.
“We were there when he was arrested. He never contravened any known law of the land that would warrant his arrest and detention in Umuahia on the trumped up allegation of being an unknown gunman.”
They said the village could have been on fire if they had not released him by the time they did.
Immediately the men were arrested, Abia Police Command, in a release issued by the then spokesman, Geoffrey Ogbonna said the men were arrested at a polling unit on the Election Day and that Irobi admitted the men with him were his guards from the VGN.
The police went further to say the men they labelled ‘unknown gunmen’ would be investigated.
