Enugu community deserted as police hunt for monarch’s killers
In Ogbozinne community, Akpugo, Nkanu West Local Government Area of Enugu State, able-bodied men have fled. This is because the police are looking for the killers of the traditional ruler of the community, Igwe Stephen Obumneme Nwatu, a retired policeman.
When our correspondent visited Ogbozinne community, he saw few very old women, apparently in their 70s and 80s. One of them said she was left alone in the whole compound.
One of the women who spoke to our correspondent after several entreaties said, “I have been down in health. I am alone in the whole house.’’ Pointing towards the way leading to the Igwe’s expansive compound, she added, “That place is his house. You will certainly see few guards there,” she said.
At Igwe’s compound, our correspondent met gatemen - an old man and a dark-skinned young man who lamented, “Those who have been pursuing the Igwe have finally succeeded in killing him. He left his ancestral community and bought land here to build this house in order to keep away from those making trouble with him, but they still attacked him until they killed him.”
When asked about the traditional ruler’s wife and children, the darkcomplexioned gateman, who refused to disclose his name, said, “Igwe’s family members are living in Enugu city. They are not here in the village.
“If you go to the scene of the incident you won’t see people there. And it is risky to go there because everywhere is tensed and deserted. Anything can happen.”
Daily Trust on Sunday gathered that not less than 50 people have been arrested by the police from the troubled area since the king was murdered.
It was gathered that before his demise, the traditional ruler was at daggers drawn with some of his subjects for the past two years. The late Igwe was accused of tyranny and impunity in the manner he ruled the community.
The friction between the royal father and his subjects took a dangerous dimension recently when the Enugu State Government disbursed N5million each to all the 450 autonomous communities in the state. The reason for the money is for the execution of the state government’s “One Community, One Project” scheme, meant to ensure that each community feels the impact of the government positively.
Daily Trust on Sunday was informed that while the cheques for the project were issued to traditional rulers, the late Igwe Nwatu did not receive any for his community due to the prolonged face-off between him and some of his subjects.
Angered by the development, Nwatu reportedly walked out on the chief of staff to Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi, Dr. Festus Uzor and other officials of the state government.
It was further gathered that the state government invited the monarch and his angry subjects to a peace meeting on Monday, June 11, 2018 at the Government House, Enugu. However, before the commencement of the meeting, there was an altercation, which eventually snowballed into a fight in the nearby community, Amodu.
According to a source, the immediate cause of the fight was that the royal father allegedly attempted to prevent his subjects from proceeding to the Government House for the proposed peace meeting.
In the raging fight, the traditional ruler was said to have been terribly manhandled by his aggrieved subjects. The Igwe passed on about 9am on Tuesday at the Enugu State University Teaching Hospital, Park Lane, Enugu, where he was rushed to. He had earlier been taken to a nearby Orient Hospital for first aid before he was referred to the Teaching Hospital.
During a previous peace meeting between Nwatu and one of his subjects at the state police headquarters, Enugu, the traditional ruler reportedly rejected an apology tendered to him by Chijioke Okenwa. The incident was said to have taken place in the office of the deputy commissioner of police in the state. Okenwa has been declared wanted by the police in connection with Igwe’s death.
According to our source, few months ago, Nwatu was said to have petitioned the police at Nkanu, alleging that his detractors killed an unknown commercial motorcycle operator. The decomposed body of the said motorcyclist was found in the bush about five months earlier, thereby sparking anti-Nwatu demonstration by youths, women and men in the community.
It was gathered that the protesters stormed the Agbani police station and demanded the quick and unconditional release of the detained community leaders. The angry demonstrators reportedly vowed to raze the police station should their leaders be detained a day longer, forcing the police to set the leaders free.
The commissioner of police in the state, Mr. Danmallam Mohammed, had earlier sent a female assistant commissioner of police and area commander for the area, Mrs. Zainab Belbi, to calm down the angry people.
It was further learnt that some indigenes of the community dragged Nwatu to court, challenging his powers to single-handedly appoint both the president-general of the town’s union as well as the leader of the community’s neighbourhood watch, their local vigilante group, without considering the general assembly or other relevant stakeholders who ought to have made their input.
It was learnt that before Nwatu’s demise, he and some of his subjects had attended a court session at Agbani the same day over some nagging issues. He reportedly came to the court premises accompanied by policemen, even when the court had adjourned for the day. Nwatu was said to have searched relentlessly for Okenwa, one of those who dragged him to court alongside others, apparently to arrest and detain them.
One version of the story has it that Igwe Nwatu was attacked and killed while he was searching for Okenwa, but another version states that the incident happened on his way to the Government House for the peace meeting. The fracas reportedly broke out between him and his subjects at Amodu, a nearby community, also in Akpugo.
It was also said that Igwe Nwatu, in the company of four policemen assigned to protect him, attempted to block the road leading to Enugu in order to prevent his subjects from proceeding to Government House. The natives reportedly occupied over 18 chartered buses which were conveying them to the Government House.
Following the hot argument, it was learnt that Nwatu ordered his driver to ram his car into the people to forcefully disperse them. In the process, some of them were injured and the rest allegedly descended heavily on him while the policemen ran away.
When the Divisional Police Officer (DPO) at Agbani received the information about the incident, he rushed to the scene and quickly took the royal father to Orient Hospital in the neighbourhood, from where he was referred to the Enugu University Teaching Hospital where he died.
As Nwatu’s remains were deposited at the hospital morgue, the old man whose two legs were said to have been crushed by Nwatu’s driver was in the National Orthopedic Hospital, Enugu where he is being treated.
The Enugu State government said it had set up a judicial panel of inquiry to ascertain the immediate and remote causes of the civil disturbance that resulted in the destruction of property and the death of Igwe Nwatu.
In a statement issued on Thursday by the state Commissioner for Chieftaincy Matters, Emeka Okeke, the state government expressed “grave concern over the ugly and unfortunate incident,” declaring that “it will not fold its arms and watch lives and property of its citizens being destroyed with brazen impunity.”
The commissioner said the panel of inquiry would also ensure that the culprits are brought to book, as well as prevent a reoccurrence of the ugly incident.
The spokesman of the police in the state, SP Ebere Amaraizu, said that those arrested in connection with the traditional ruler’s death had been helping the police in their investigation.
In a statement issued in Enugu, Amaraizu wrote, “Operatives of the state Criminal Intelligence and Investigations Department have commenced a full-scale investigation into the alleged gruesome murder of an Enugu Monarch on June 11, 2016 along the Ndiagu Akpugo axis of Nkanu West Local Government Area by some people suspected to be his kinsmen, over a yet-to-be established issue.”
Amaraizu further said the police had intensified manhunt for one Chijioke Nnona Okenwa, a trader at Alaba International Market, Lagos, over his alleged involvement in the gruesome murder of the monarch. The police spokesman said a warrant of arrest had been issued against him and his cohorts.