…Wants monarch arrested
The traditional ruler of Mmahu in Ohaji-Egbema council area of Imo state, Eze Augustine Iwuogu, has been accused of complicity in the cold-blooded murder of seven of his kinsmen last Tuesday.
The monarch was accused of using four notorious murderers who escaped last year from the Owerri prisons after the April 5th prison break, to intimidate and silence opposition in the community.
The escapee convicts are Osita Ogbori, Chinedu Echeta, Ugochukwu Nwabugo and Chukwuebuka Abezim.
The community sources maintained that only Eze Augustine Iwuogu will know the whereabout of the killers of his kinsmen and as such should be arrested for questioning.
Among those killed were the Town union President-General, Charles Mgbaraho; his Secretary, Chastity Nwachukwu and the Publicity Secretary of the community, Chinedu Anene. Others are Edeme Okoro, Isaac Ojenya, Ndubuisi Okereke and Junior Ifeyinwoke.
Our correspondent gathered that trouble started in the community on August 24th, 2020 when the Imo state governor, Senator Hope Uzodinma through the Interim Management Committee Chairman of Ohaji-Egbema Council Area, Marcel Amadioha, appointed Charles Mgbaraho and his team as executives of Mmahu Town Union.
According to several community sources, Eze Augustine Iwuogu did not hide his misgivings over the appointment and so vowed to resist the Town union appointment until they were removed.
Among several efforts to reverse the appointment or antagonise the appointees, some indigenes of Mmahu in Rivers states, loyal to the monarch, petitioned the Imo state Police command accusing the new Town union executives of causing problems in the community. But in the course of interrogation, it was discovered that the group loyal to monarch maybe complicity to the many killings in the community and as such four of them were detained last Thursday.
From Monday night to Tuesday morning, the gang of killers led by the escapee ex-convicts struck and killed three of the Town union leaders who testified in the Police and four others while a few others narrowly escaped the attacked.
A community source who gave his same as Akpi Okaro told our correspondent that, “sometime in June last year, in the course of a meeting in the palace of Eze Augustine Iwuogu, one Uche Nwokocha, while strolling round saw the four convicts who escaped from Owerri prison on April 5th 2021, at the back side of the palace. He came back and raised the alarm in the meeting among his kinsmen, two days after that being 6th June, they murdered him. On 15th June, 2021, Onyekachi Ugwuoha was killed by the same gang and on the 4th of July, 2021, Athanatius Nwokocha, Uncle to the murdered Uche Nwokocha was also killed by the gang for supporting newly appointed Town Union leadership and blaming the convicts for the ugly occurrences in the community.”
Police authorities have confirmed the killings but have indicated that a cult war may be the cause. But the Councillor for Mmahu and four other communities, Hon. Camilus Okoro dismissed the Police assertion as outrageous insisting that the murder was a premeditated killing to silence, wipe-out and depose Town union leaders appointed by the governor who the monarch perceive as not being his loyalists.
Efforts to reach the monarch as at news time proved abortive.
