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From Okey Sampson, Umuahia
Palpable tension has enveloped the sleepy and rustic community of Idima Abam in Arochukwu Local Government Area of Abia State, following the arrest of their traditional ruler, Eze Ogo James Chukwu.
Youths in the village are planning a showdown if the police from Abuja, who arrested their traditional ruler over what they described as fathom allegation of inciting violence in the community, failed to release him without delay.
One of the youth leaders in Idima Abam, who did not want his name in print for fear of victimisation, said police from Abuja, acting on a petition by one of the sponsors of a group in the community, known as ‘Red Chamber’, and a staunch member of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), which the traditional ruler has been fighting to stamp out, has been detained for over three weeks.
The youth leader said the traditional ruler’s ordeal began on October 21, 2021, when his lawyer wrote a petition to the Deputy Inspector General of Police, Force Criminal Investigation Department, Abuja, stating the alleged atrocities of the ‘Red Chamber’, against his people.
He said the petitioner had chronicled the atrocities committed by the ‘Red Chamber’ group since its emergence in Idima Abam in 2017, including the alleged killing and banishment of some prominent people in the community.
The petition was said to have angered the said sponsor of the ‘Red Chamber’ group, who vowed to deal with the traditional ruler decisively for daring to challenge the authority of the group and, by extension, his, and has allegedly been using the police to make good his vow.
The present ordeal of the traditional ruler reportedly started mid November, when he went to Aba for a meeting. However, on his way back to Idima Abam, policemen who claimed to have come from Abuja, arrested him at the Ntigha Junction, on the Abia section of the Enugu-Port Harcourt Expressway.
The arrest was said to have been prompted by a petition also written by the said sponsor of the ‘Red Chamber’ group and, since then, Eze Chukwu has not been seen.
Before the present detention of the traditional ruler, some members of the community, under the banner of Concerned Indigenes of Idima Abam (CIIA), had written a petition to the Deputy Inspector General of Police, Force Criminal Investigation Department, Abuja.
They detailed, in the petition, how the ‘Red Chamber’ members allegedly abducted and killed some natives, and the traditional ruler’s attempt to defend his people has rather been turned against him.
Based on the petition, the Force Headquarters was said to have 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.
However, not satisfied with the handling of the matter by the police team, the CIIA did another petition, this time, to the Inspector General of Police, demanding a proper handling of the matter by the police.The CIIA said the IGP, in a memo directed to the Abia State Commissioner of Police, Danladi Isa, to properly investigate the matter.
The people are wondering why the Abia Command has not done anything since the IGP’s directive and alleged that “This seeming police silence, emboldened the ‘Red Chamber’ members, who increased their terror activities in the community.
“None of the ‘Red Chamber’ members was arrested over this heinous crime. Their sponsors always ensure they remain untouchable.”
In a rather sad twist of fate, when the hunter becomes the hunted, CIIA claimed that their traditional ruler, Eze Chukwu, is being hounded and hunted by the police authorities at the behest of both the sponsors and members of the ‘Red Chamber’.
Meanwhile, the wife of the arrested traditional ruler, Mary Chukwu Jonah, has made a passionate appeal to the Inspector General of Police, for the immediate release of her husband and father of their three young children.
She said for one month that her husband was arrested, she has not seen nor heard from him, and that their little children have been crying daily, asking for their father.
Corroborating the people’s position on the matter, the mother of three said it was no crime for her husband to legitimately stand up in defence of his subjects who, she said, have been traumatised over the years by their traducers.
Some of the youths from the community, who spoke to Daily Sun, urged Governor Alex Otti to intervene in the matter and ensure the release of their traditional ruler, in the interest of the fragile peace in the community.
