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By Sunday Ani
The President General (PG) of Obu-na-ebere Nkuma Development Union (ODU), Isuikwuato of Abia State, Ignatius Okoronkwo, has petitioned the Deputy Inspector General of Police in charge of the Intelligence Department of the Nigeria Police at the Force Headquarters, Abuja, alleging that the traditional ruler of the community, Eze Faraday Chinekwe and the community’s youth leader, Kelechi Madu, were the brains behind the alleged gruesome murder of Mr Linus Uzom Nnabuife in July this year. Nnabuife was a native of Okpu na Eke kindred, Obu-na-ebere Nkuma Autonomous Community, Eluama in Isuikwuato Local Government Area of Abia State.
Okoronkwo told the police that he was writing to them out of grave concern about the situation in his community, particularly the gruesome murder of Mr Linus, as well as the threat to the peace, lives and properties of some members of the community.
He alleged that the Obu-na-ebere Nkuma community has been polarized since December 26, 2020, when the Eze Chinekwe purportedly dissolved the elected executive of the community development union, ODU national. The polarization in the community, he noted, has been along the line of those for and those against the dissolution of the elected executive. “The leadership of the union went to court to challenge the dissolution but the matter has been pending before the Abia State High Court, Isuikwuato judicial division.
“To further aggravate the threats to peace in the community, the national youth leader, Kelechi Madu, in collaboration with Eze Chinekwe, earlier this year, 2025, conducted elections for the home branch youths of the community without recourse to and approval from the parent body, ODU national, from where the youth wing derives its existence. To help further their objectives, they ensured that only those loyal to the monarch were elected into various available positions.
“Since that election, the youths have been radicalized and have been taking laws into their own hands, in connivance with the traditional ruler and the national leader. For flimsy reasons, the youths arrest, flog and beat their perceived enemies; those whose opinions do not align with theirs and those of Eze Chinekwe and Madu. All attempts to correct them have fallen on deaf ears.
“On June 16, 2025, the youths beat up and flogged Mr. Linus Uzom Nnabuihe (now deceased), inflicting bodily injuries on him. The said Nnabuihe reported the matter to Ovim Divisional Police Station, Isuikwuato, Abia State. The police invited the culprits, including Chief Kelachukwu Ukeje and seven others.
“But, only two of the invitees, Chief Ukeje and one other person honoured the police invitation. They were accompanied by Eze Chinekwe, who expressed interest in the matter and expressed support for them.
“While the matter was with the police, Eze Chinekwe, Madu and the remaining six others, continued to threaten Linus, demanding that he should withdraw the matter from the police. Eventually, Linus succumbed to their pressure and the matter was closed without any medical treatment given to him for the injuries sustained.
“A few weeks later, precisely on July 23, 2025, Linus’ body was found inside the bush by a search team from the community. They later reported his death at the Ovim Divisional Police Station. The police followed the search team to the scene, recovered the corpse and deposited it at a mortuary facility at Eluama, Isuikwuato.
“Subsequently, at the instance of the deceased’s elder brother, Pastor Remmy Paul Nnabuihe, a petition was written and submitted to the Assistant Inspector General of Police (AIG), Zone 9, Umuahia, on July 31, 2025, through Adibe Tochi, attorney at law.
“However, the individuals named in the petition have been seen and heard boasting that they enjoy the support and protection of Eze Chinekwe and Madu, both claiming to have contacts inside and outside the police high command, and in the state and Federal Government. They are also insisting that the matter would come to nothing.
“We, therefore, write to request your intervention in this matter to ensure that justice is served in the Linus’ murder,” Okoronkwo stated in the petition.
Linus’ murder had earlier been reported to the Assistant Inspector-General in charge of Zone 9 Police Headquarters, Umahia, Abia State, by Tochi Adibe, a lawyer to the deceased’s elder brother, Pastor Nnabuife.
According to the lawyer, Linus called his elder brother on the phone on June 16, 2025, to narrate how he was battered by the combined efforts of Chief Ukeje and others and how he reported the incident at the Isuikwuato Divisional Police Headquarters in Abia State.
He further said the deceased told his elder brother that his assailants, who threatened to kill him, boasting that he cannot do anything and that nobody would come to his aid, were working for Eze Chinekwe
He said the deceased’s elder brother alleged that Eze Chinekwe visited the police division alongside one of his fellow traditional rulers on two occasions to inform the DPO that he was interested in the matter; a development he said was why the police could not arrest the assailants until Linus was gruesomely murdered.
According to the petition, the alleged assailants visited the deceased in his house on July 21, 2025, to threaten that they would deal with him, and sadly, executed the threat on Tuesday, July 22, when the deceased went to farm and never returned home alive.
“Our client informed us that he received a call on Wednesday, July 23, 2025, that a search party discovered the corpse of his younger brother; Linus Uzom Nnabuihe, in a bush and made a formal report at the Isuikwuato Divisional Police Headquarters, while the DPO sent his men who recovered and deposited the corpse at a nearby mortuary.
“Our client informed us that the deceased complained to him sometime in 2022 how Eze Chinekwe and his associates used the military to drive them out of their homes in the dead hours of the night for participating in a communal work.
“We humbly ask that you use your good offices to come to the aid of our client and other residents of Obu-na-ebere Nkuma autonomous community, Eluama, Isuikwuato, Isuikwato Local Government Area of Abia State. We look forward to your prompt response as we assure you of our utmost cooperation,” the lawyer stated.
However, responding to the allegations, Ezechinekwe, who is also the chairman of the Isiukwuato Local Government Traditional Rulers’ Advisory Council, denied any involvement in the death of Mr. Linus. He said he never sent anybody or engineered anybody to kill Linus, describing the allegation linking him to his death as spurious, unfounded and deliberately concocted to tarnish his image.
He admitted that he was at the police station when some youths were arrested in connection with Mr. Linus’ death but stressed that it was to know how the community’s deputy traditional prime minister, Chief Ukeje got involved since he is not a youth.
He also traced the genesis of what he thought could have led to Mr. Linus’ death, to a disagreement among the youths over who would take custody of palliative documents allegedly brought to the community by an unnamed man from Umuahia, the Abia State capital.
Recounting the events that led to Mr. Linus’ death, he said: “I know that on June 3, 2025, the community youth went out on a road work. I wasn’t around but I heard that somebody from Umuahia came with palliative documents which caused misunderstanding among them.
“They finally ended in Ovim Police Station and when I returned, I was informed that Kelachukwu Ukeje, the deputy traditional prime minister was among the manes shortlisted by the police. I called him and I asked him what actually happened. He said he wasn’t part of the altercation as he wasn’t even there. He said he was in a meeting at the community’s primary school at the time the youth were fighting.
“So, at the Obim Divisional Police, I asked Linus (now deceased) if Ukeje was part of the altercation but he couldn’t answer the question. I also asked Linus if the youths actually beat him but he didn’t say anything. I also asked the youth what happened and they said they didn’t beat him. They said the only problem they had with him was that he disappeared with the palliative documents and they got him after searching for him, they only collected the palliative documents in his possession.
“But at the end of the day, the Divisional Police Officer (DPO) reconciled them and allowed them to go. The only reason that took me to the Police Station was to find out why Ukeje as a member of the Eze in Council should be involved in such a matter. That was why I was at the police station.”
Also, responding to the death threat on July 21 and the eventual execution of the threat on July 22, he said his hands were clean as he wasn’t a party to such an evil plot. “Now, on July 22, Linus went to his farm but he didn’t return. Normally, if such a thing happens, I am alerted and the town crier is asked to tell the community youth to go for a search around the community. Unfortunately, that was not done and I didn’t know why. The next thing I heard was that the police had come on June 23 to recover his dead body.
“Later, there was a petition to Zone 9, and on august 28, the police from Zone 9 came to arrest the PG of the youth wing. They also came to my palace but there was a large crowd and there were only three police officers. I told the officers that there was no way they could arrest anybody under such a rowdy situation as they could be attacked. I asked them to go with a promise to bring the people to their station the following Tuesday. They agreed and left.
“On the agreed Tuesday, I took the people to the station and while they were reading the petition, my name was mentioned that I went to the police headquarters to stop a murder case. I said well the police are there and the document they produced said it was a sudden unexpected death (SUD). That was what was written in the police report. I don’t know if there is any other thing but that has been the situation. So, I am not part of any killing. My hands are clean. I don’t even know Linus that much,” he statd.
When Mr. Kelechi Madu, Eze Chinekwe’s co-accused was contacted on phone, he went berserk, raining curses on the reporter for daring to seek his own side of the story. He first requested to know where the reporter was called from before saying, “What happened is that you and whoever that gave you the information and whoever fabricated it with you, should go to hell fire and die there. Go to hell fire and die there; are you hearing me? Enter hell fire and die there, forever and ever, in Jesus’ name.”
In his reaction, Chief Ukeje said he was innocent as he wasn’t present the first day Linus had issues with the youths regarding the palliative documents, which he allegedly ran away with.
He said he was the one that attracted the government’s incentive to the community, but he was not around the day the messenger from Umuahia came to the community to deliver the papers. He was aware that there was a problem, which later involved the police but he said he was not at the scene of the fracas as he was in the community’s primary school speaking with some teachers. “I was not there. I can give you the contact of some of the teachers for you to call them and know that I was not there,” he insisted.
On Linus’ death, he said: “I don’t know anything about that. We were all informed that he went to work for somebody in the person’s farm and didn’t return. We later heard that he was dead and that some people must have murdered him.
“In my community, if a person is missing, the town-crier would announce the development to the community which will in turn organize a search party. But, in this case, it wasn’t like that; a few people just came out with the corpse and rushed to report at the police station. So, the bottom-line is that I don’t know anything about his death. Even regarding the beating earlier before his death, I wasn’t there.”
Speaking about the incident, one of the witnesses, Ikenna Nnosike said as the chairman of one of the communities that make up the Obu-na-ebere Nkuma, he was contacted when Linus’ did not return from work on that fateful day.
“When I was contacted, I alerted the community and we organized a search for him. We found dead, like some poles’ away from the farm where he was working before the attack. His killers killed him on that farm and dragged him some distances away from the farm where they dumped his corpse.
“We reported to the police, who came with us to take the body to the mortuary. From our observation and the comment by the police team at the spot, he was murdered by some unknown people.
“We don’t know who killed him but we know that he had issues with some people about two weeks before the incident and he told his earlier brother that those people threatened to deal with him. So, we can’t say that these are the people that killed him but we can confirm that he was killed,” he stated.
However, when contacted, the Investigating Police Officer (IPO) in charge of the case at Zone 9 Police Headquarters, Umuahia, Kala Obiri, said he had not come up with the final report as investigations were still ongoing. “Investigations into the matter are still ongoing. It is after investigations are concluded that we can release our final report. For now, we have not put up with any report because we are still investigating,” he stated.
