A community leader and President General of Ibute-Egede Town Union, in Udi Local Government Area of Enugu State, Ichie Henry Oyinze has petitioned the Inspector-General of Police, Kayode Egbetokun, over the alleged persistent arrest and intimidation of elders of his community by the traditional ruler, HRH Igwe Peter Okwesiri (Mmiri na Ezoro-oha of IBUTE-EGEDE), who was recently accused of ruling his community from the diaspora.
The President General also wrote the Enugu State Governor, Dr Peter Ndubuisi Mbah, alleging that the community elders were being subjected to harassment, persistent arrests and intimidation by the monarch, in convenience with the Force CID Annex, Agbani Road, Enugu State
In the petition addressed to the Inspector General of Police in Abuja, entitled, “Urgent Call for IGP’s Investigation into Human Rights Violations and Police Harassment by the Force CID Annex, Agbani Road, Enugu State”, the petitioner said that they have been victims of police harassment, intimidation and mass arrest by the Police Annex, on the directive of the monarch who resides abroad.
Part of the letter reads: “Dear IGP, I hereby submit this petition to urgently bring to your attention the alarming activities of the Force CID Annex, Agbani Road, Enugu State. The operations of this unit have no doubts been reported by my community to be far worse than those of the now-disbanded Special Anti-Robbery Squad, with numerous accounts of flagrant violation of human rights in my community, Ibute-Egede in Udi LGA of Enugu State.
“Over the past two years in my community, there were too many accounts of corruption and flagrant abuse of power sustained by impunity, through unwarranted police mass arrests and unlawful detention of our indigenes by your annex in Agbani road, which would urgently require your investigations and urgent actions.
“In this past two years under review, the traditional ruler of my community, HRH Igwe Peter Ikenna Okwesiri (Mmiri na Ezoro-oha), has been residing in Boston, the United States of America, while serving as custodian of culture and traditional head of Ibute-Egede community, in Enugu State.
“This long and wide distance between the monarch and the people he was made to serve as their traditional ruler, has been a major cause of conflict between the community and the monarch, as the Igwe only visits the community twice in a whole year.
“There were instances where the community’s decisions on their own security, wellbeing and goodwill were upturned from far away United States by the Igwe without consultations with the Town Union or the elders of our community, thereby triggering an array of community squabbles and general crisis.”
The petitioner also accused the traditional ruler of directing some unauthorized individuals in the community to have custody of the community’s security apparatus, thereby exacerbating the crisis in the community, instead of finding solutions to them.
