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ν Septuagenarian whose husband was murdered in Abia community seeks justice, accuses police of cover up
ν They want me to say my man died of accident
From Okey Sampson, Umuahia
Mrs Cecilia James Iro, 70, from Idima Abam, in Arochukwu Local Government Area of Abia State will not forget in a hurry the date, March 28, 2019. It is a date she will always reckon with for the very wrong reason. It was the day her husband, Mr James Iro (Akpola) was forcefully taken away from their home by members of a cultist group known as Red Chambers and gruesomely murdered without any tangible reason.
Narrating the incident, Mrs Iro said she was with her husband about 5:30pm on that fateful day when about six members of the Red Chamber group entered their sitting room in Idima Abam, armed with dangerous weapons, and ordered her husband to follow them.
The woman said an attempt she made to know what her husband did to warrant such an unholy summoning and where they were taking him to was promptly checkmated with the worst beating of her life.
Mrs Iro revealed that as her husband was being led away, his captives sternly warned members of his family not to report the matter to the police, else, they would face dire consequences.
The distressed elderly woman s, speaking amid sobs, said it was hours after her husband was taken away that information came that he had been gruesomely murdered and buried in a shallow grave. Up till now, she said she had not set her eyes on her husband either dead or alive.
The woman claimed that on November 15, 2023, about three and half years after the husband’s murder, the same group abducted and assaulted her and 11 other members of the community whom they claimed reported the matter to the police and kept them in an evil forest in the village, waiting for their execution before they were rescued by a combined team of the Military and DSS Operatives on November 16, 2023.
The matter was later handed over to the Abia State Police Command. The then Commissioner of Police personally interviewed the rescued victims and saw first hand the injuries they sustained. But according to the woman, nothing came out of it.
Intervention by concerned indigenes
Piqued by the gruesome murder of Iro and his cousin, Samson Ihueze on the same day, some members of the community under the banner of Concerned Indigenes of Idima Abam (CIIA), through their counsel, on October 21, 2021, wrote a petition to the Deputy Inspector General of Police, Force Criminal Investigation Department, Abuja.
In the petition referenced MO/LP/101/2021, they detailed how the Red Chamber members abducted and killed Iro and his cousin and sought the arrest and trial of the suspects.
Based on the petition, the Nigeria Police Force headquarters raised a team of policemen led by Idris Agacho, a Superintendent of police, with Inspector Halidu Ahmadu and Sergeant Stephen Goyil as other members of the team.
Widow’s woes
Mrs Iro claimed that when the police team arrived Idima Abam to investigate the matter, someone approached and urged her to tell the police team that her husband died due to injuries he sustained as a result of an accident.
The lady asserted that when she refused the to accede to such an abominable proposal, the police refused to interview her over her husband’s death, but instead, instantly, granted all the suspects bail in the village square and the matter put in the cooler.
“As the person sitting with my husband before he was taken away and murdered, the police team sent to investigate the matter never asked me about what happened probably because I refused to admit to a devilish proposal that my husband, who was sitting with me in the house before they took him away, was involved in an accident.”
Petition to IGP
Not satisfied with the handling of the matter by the police team, the CIIA on August 28, 2023, sent another petition, this time, to the Inspector General of Police, drawing his attention to what they termed unprofessional conduct by the police team that visited Idima Abam over the incident.
In the petition, the CIIA told the IGP among other things that the police investigating team, on arriving Idima Abam, went straight to the house of one of the sponsors of the cult group and after discussions there, the 19 accused persons, in a suspicious manner, were granted bail there and then.
To make the issue more worrisome, the petitioners alleged that none of the relatives of the murdered victims was interviewed by the police team.
The petitioners stated: “The police team did not bother to interact with any member of the deceased families. When we confronted them on why they did not affect the arrest of any of the suspects, they claimed they did not have the power to do so.
“More confounding to us was that such a high powered investigation team from the apex criminal investigation superstructure of our country could grant murder suspects immediate bail in the comfort of their homes.”
The IGP, in a memo on September 20, 2023, directed the DIGP, FCID, to investigate the allegations against the police team and report back. CIIA said up till now, nothing has been heard again. This seeming police silence they claimed, emboldened the Red Chamber members who increased their terror activities in the community.
“None of the Red Chamber cult member was arrested over this yet heinous crime. Their sponsors always ensure they remain untouchables.”
The CIIA claimed that its leader, Chief Chukwu Jonah is being hounded and hunted by the police authorities at the behest of both the sponsors and members of the Red Chamber Cult.
Appeal for military intervention
With the resumption of activities by the Red Chamber members and the seemingly police docility over the matter, the community sought refuge in the hands of the military.
On November 17, 2023, CIIA wrote a letter to the Brigade Commander, 14 Brigade, Ohafia, Abia State appealing to him to establish a military post in Idima Abam to liberate it from being a safe haven for criminals. This request was acceded to and the people began to have a temporary sigh of relief.
Petition to Speaker, House of Reps
The CIIA also said with the reluctance of FCIID, Enugu Annex to conduct an unbiased investigation into the various murders that was handed over to them from FCIID Abuja, it remained determined to seek justice for the murdered victims.
On December 10, 2024, CIIA did another petition to the Speaker, House of Representatives, urging the House to compel the Inspector General of Police to investigate and prosecute all those alleged to have been involved in the murder of their kinsmen.
Complaining to the Speaker, the petitioners said: “The first police team that came for investigation in Idima Abam were compromised by the sponsors of the group and this resulted in the murder suspects being granted bail in the village.
“Since then, the suspects, while enjoying the freedom granted them by the police, have done everything humanly possible to scuttle investigations into their crimes and evade justice. The police in Enugu whom the matter was referred to from Abuja, seemed constrained to investigate this heinous crime for reasons best known to them.”
The CIIA wants the House of Representatives to mandate the IGP to ensure that all those connected with the murders and who have been so mentioned in the investigation get arrested and confined in accordance with the law to pave way for an unbiased investigation.
Corroborating the statement of the CIIA, the wife of the murdered Iro said: “When a team from the FCIID Enugu Annex came to Idima, they didn’t bother to talk to any members of the victims’ family. They only hobnobbed with the sponsors and members of the Red Chamber and left. We didn’t hear anything again from them. Instead, they have been harassing and hounding the leader of the CIIA over spurious allegations.”
The House’s mandate
Investigation revealed that the House of Representatives Committee on Public Petitions has in their resolution of the matter dated September 24, 2025, requested the IGP to constitute a fresh team that will carry out an unbiased and proper investigation of what happened at Idima Abam with a view to bringing anyone who broke the law to book.
Further investigations revealed that the IGP has since acquiesced to the request by directing the CP Abia, Danladi Isa to take over the investigations.
While waiting for the police to commence fresh investigation, Mrs Iro is calling for justice. The septuagenarian said it is against the law of the land and that of natural justice that those who sacrilegiously murdered her husband would be allowed to be roaming the streets and even planning to do more as she claimed she has been constantly receiving threats to her life from the same quarters that killed her husband.
She also wants the police to stop all forms of harassment and hounding of the leader of the CIIA, Chief Chukwu and his colleagues who have been fighting to achieve justice for her murdered husband and other victims of the Red Chamber terrorism.
Son’s appeal
Her son, Joseph Iro is on the same page with his mother on the matter. Detailing how his father, who he said was full of life, was murdered by the Red Chamber members, he said it was heartrending that those who committed such a heinous crime against not just his family, but also humanity, should be allowed to be moving about freely.
The younger Iro said apart from arresting and prosecuting the offenders who are already known, he also wants members of the Red Chambers to be compelled to show the family where they buried their father so as to enable them exhume the body and give him proper burial, according to Igbo tradition, so that his soul could rest in peace.
