What seems an impunity of the highest order appear to be playing out as victims of armed attack and attempted assassination in Nkerehi town in Orumba South Local Government Area of Anambra State are still crying for justice four months after the incident.
The victims include an Owerri based lawyer, Barr. Basil Igwike, his wife Dr. (Mrs) Maureen Igwike, Mr. Joseph Anula, Mr. Simeon Okeke, Mr. Benjamin Onwu, Master Joshua Iheukwumere and others.
They got what they never bargained for when one Kenneth Maduka who claimed to be a monarch and a brother of Godwin Maduka, People’s Democratic Party (PDP) governorship aspirant in Anambra allegedly led a group of youth hirelings to attack them in the wee hours of January 7th 2021.
According to their account, “we were attacked on the night of 6th January 2021 from 10pm to the wee hours of 7th January 2021 by 12.39 am by Kenneth Maduka and his Umuchukwu youth hirelings with myriads of offensive weapons.
“First we wrote a petition dated 8th January 2021 to the Commissioner of Police Anambra State under former CP John Abang but none of the suspects was arrested till date as they move freely in the society as if nothing happened on the date aforementioned.
“We victims further put up another petition to IGP and it was assigned to the Force CID which extended an invitation to the suspects to answer for the allegations but the suspects have not honored police invitation on three subsequent adjournments at their instances.
Dr Igwike had earlier narrated her ordeals in the hands of the hoodlums, how she was rough handled, beaten blue and black with swollen faces, stripped by the Maduka and rape attempted on her but for her period and how she was eventually saved by a Good Samaritan. They descended on her when her husband, the target, escaped jumping down from a storey building.
On her efforts to get justice she lamented that she was ignored by the then commissioner of police who played over the incident and never took any action till date. “Not even our petition to the IGP who assigned the matter has attracted any action against the culprits”, she bemoaned.
Explaining further she indicated “In the office of the CP when I made to speak, the CP said, “Madam sit down, this is my office I will allow you to talk when I want you to talk.” After one man from Owerre Ezukala spoke, I raised up my hand again that I am a victim and want to state my case. He said Madam sit down and I obeyed but with bitterness. He now said, “I have been asking you people to have peace but you refused, you should go and fight and kill yourselves, the only thing I will do is to come and collect your corpses and dump in the mortuary, after all I am not from your place.” All of us that were victims were not given a chance to talk. The DPO had earlier given a graphic account of the incident as it happened in the presence of the victims, the two factions but no attention was given to it by the CP.”
Barr. Igwike sounds frustrated when he spoke to our correspondent at the weekend in his office wondering what our justice system has turned to. He said that he has done what a law abiding citizen of Nigeria is expected in law to do in this circumstance but according to him it is unfortunate and lugubrious that suspects now dictate for the police the pace for investigation over allegations against them.
In his words, “it seems like some people are above the law in Nigeria and that has been the reason why crimes and criminality is on the increase in the country.” Igwike wonders how as a lawyer he will be frustrated to this extent and how much more the ordinary Nigerian who does not know his rights.
“I am now calling on the Inspector General of Police to intervene and ensure that those miscreants who came to assassinate me on the wee hours of 7th January 2021 and vandalized my vehicles be brought to book.
Speaking further he stated that the spate of attacks on Nkerehi people is becoming endemic and that informed the women’s protest to the government house Awka sometime in February 2021 and they fingered a gubernatorial aspirant Dr. Godwin Maduka for oppressing, suppressing and using his Umuchukwu youths in attacking them, their husbands and children over their refusal to accept his agenda of change of the name of their town from Nkerehi to Umuchukwu.
News Echo investigation revealed that victims belonged to a section of the community that had opposed the changing of the community singularly by Godwin Maduka. Opposing members of the community reportedly have been undergoing oppressive actions with a view to bend them to accept the name change.
The name change matter had dragged over 14 years bringing in its wake several litigations, killings, fighting and lack of peace in the community. Sadly, the police authorities and the political authorities are not helping matters or rather put up attitudes that give them out as compromised.
There is urgent need for law to take its course in this matter before people will begin to opt for self-help in the absence of any protection. How long the matter drags is any one’s guess.
