…We’re not shielding suspects – Police

From Emmanuel Uzor, Abakaliki

On Sunday, December 18, 2016, 57-year-old Ogbonnaya Okwua left his house at Ezi Oti Inya Village, Unwana Afikpo, in Ebonyi State and headed for his farm, he was full of hope and optimistic that he would leave the farm with a good harvest.

He did not know that calamity was lurking around the corner neither did he suspect that it was his dismembered body that would end up being evacuated from the farm.

His family and kinsmen at Unwana were thrown into confusion when Okwua did not return from the farm. Subsequently, anger, shock and sorrow enveloped the community when the mutilated remains of the deceased were found at Ihu-Uro, Ebe Uhuetiti by the search party constituted by members of the local vigilance group after his family had declared him missing.

Okwua, until his death, was the national vice chairman of the Onyirimba Age Grade of Unwana. He was apparently trailed to his farm that fateful day and butchered to death by assailants.

Daily Sun gathered that it took the intervention of the Unwana vigilance group, led by one Emmanuel Ebeke Egwu, to discover the body, recover the remains from the farm and arrest three suspects in connection with the murder.

Although the suspects, including a member of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) have been arraigned before an magistrate’s court in Abakaliki and remanded in prison custody, members of his family seem to have certain things bothering them.

Counsel to the Mgberenwas, the family of the deceased, Chief Nnachi Egwu, has forwarded a petition to the authorities on the concerns of the family.

In his petition to the Inspector-General of Police dated February 5, 2017, Egwu expressed dissatisfaction with the level of police investigation into the crime and urged the police boss to wade into the matter and ensure that the police carry out a thorough investigation.

Egwu noted that two key suspects were arrested by operatives of the State Criminal Investigation Department (SCID) from Abakaliki in connection with the incident.

Apart from the principal suspect, simply identified as Idi Amin, who allegedly sustained machete cuts apparently from struggling with the deceased during the incident, an officer of the NSCDC attached to the Ubeyi Development Centre, Afikpo, and one other suspect and staff of the Akanu Ibiam Federal Polytechnic, Unwana, were also arrested.

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“The two key suspects have voluntarily confessed to their participation in the crime and, if properly drilled, they will name their accomplices. Some other arrests have been made but the arrested persons were merely quizzed and released by the police in highly questionable circumstances,” he regretted.

The lawyer lamented that the circumstances of Okwua’s death threw up many leads for investigation, but such leads were yet to be thoroughly exhausted by the police in Ebonyi State. He called on the IGP to intervene in the unresolved murder case.

“One of the principal suspects, who received a very deep cut from the deceased did confess to the Unwana vigilante committee that they were many and that it was a premeditated murder. The said injured suspect was treated locally at Unwana by stitching of the hand by an owner of a patent medicine store at Ezi Akaa village, Unwana.

“The suspects confessed that they used to meet in furtherance to their illegal acts at a local drinking joint at Ezi Akaa, Unwana, where they perfected their ill plans. The owner of the said local joint was merely quizzed by the police and released,” the petition added.

Egwu expressed concern over the way the police in the state were handling the matter, noting that the police had not exhausted investigation concerning the murder of the deceased before releasing the suspects. He said the situation had been causing pain and anguish to the Mgberenwa family.

“The family of the deceased is visibly worried and uncomfortable with the fact that the police at Abakaliki have not thoroughly investigated the case to unravel the mystery behind the dastardly act.  The rumour is rife in Unwana that many of the suspects are still walking free, despite being fingered by the vigilante group. They are bitter that the police have refused to cooperate with them in the investigations. It is their honest belief that the telephone callers of the late Mr. Okwua on that fateful Sunday, if screened and investigated, will provide further useful clues. Yet, the telephone of the late Okwua is in custody of the police without any serious investigation into the identity of his callers on that fateful day. From every indication, the assailants monitored him up to the isolated farmland,” Egwu said.

In his demand for justice, the counsel to the deceased’s family said: “We hereby, in accordance with the instruction of our client, humbly urge you to take over the matter of the brutal murder of

Citizen Ogbonnaya Okwua of Ezi Oti Inya Village in Unwana Town in Afikpo North Local Government Area of Ebonyi State, and ensure an in-depth and thorough investigation into the dastardly act.”

But the police authorities in Ebonyi, in reaction, denied all the allegations levelled against them by the counsel to the family of the deceased. They claimed that the three suspects arrested in connection with the murder had long been arraigned and remanded in Abakaliki Prisons, while further investigations were ongoing.

Police Public Relations Officer, Mr. Jude Madu, a deputy superintendent of police, who spoke with the reporter, said the suspects had been charged to court and gave the charge number as MAB/46C/2017.

He noted that the suspects had been remanded in prison while the police had spread their dragnet to arrest other suspects in connection with the murder of the man.