Mayhem in Mbulu Owo

This young man (left and down right), Christian Igwe Aniowo, is a victim of wickedness and bestiality of man.

An indigene of Ogere village, Owoh town, Nkanu East Local Government Area of Enugu state, Aniowo was in the wee hours of January 11 this year attacked by an armed gang which, after robbing him of his personal effects, gave him deep machete cuts and abducted him to a bush where they abandoned him to die and rot away.

Aniowo, in a petition to Enugu state Police Commissioner, Mohammad Zarewa, fingered Chief Godwin Okeke Arum (alias Egbeevumbe), Kenneth Nnamchi, Chinedu Nnamchi, Emeka Nnamchi, Uche Nnamchi, Okorie Aniowo, Johnson Aninwoko, Boniface Onuma, Onyebuchi Onuma and Sunday Agbowo in the deadly attack on him.

The petition, entitled: ‘Case of Armed Robbery, Burglary, Destruction of Property, Abduction and Attempted Murder…’, narrates, “On 11 January, 2009 (Sunday) at about 1.30am, they (the hoodlums) broke my door, pointed guns at me, took my Nokia camera handset valued N9,000.00, made away with my physical cash of N20,000.00 and after which they gave me several cuts on my back and my left hand after which they took me to the bush and abandoned me there believing that I was dead”.

That same day, the gang attacked Aniowo’s elder sister, Amawbia Igwe, and robbed her of the sum of N7, 500.00 after destroying property in her compound.

Another indigene of the community, Joseph Ngwu, similarly, fell victim to the gangsters. Ngwu, in a similar petition to Police Commissioner Zarewa, complains that, while he was in his Port-Harcourt base, the armed gang, numbering over twenty, attacked his house, and held members of his house-hold and the entire neighborhood hostage.

Having missed their target, Joseph, they descended on his younger brother, Uche Ngwu, beating him to stupor. And in their characteristic manner, they abducted Uche and abandoned him somewhere in the bush. They, also, vandalized Joseph’s house and carted away many of his valuables, including two motorcycles valued at N130, 000.00; one Suzuki generator, N75, 000.00; two telephone handsets, N15, 000.00; necklaces and chains, N30, 000.00, as well as a cash of N300, 000.00.

“We are traumatized and victimized and no longer safe”, the victims cry out to Zarewa.

KlinReports, however, traced the attack on Aniowo to an Igweship tussle in the community. Chief Okeke Arum, one of the suspects in the attack, is at the centre of the kingship tussle rocking Mbulu Owo. The crisis dates back to 2003.

A petition to Governor Sullivan Chime, dated 29 January, 2009, alleges that Arum plots to install himself as the Igwe of Mbulu Owo ‘without any of the villages or well meaning organizations that make up the community’. The community is made up of villages of Mbulu Ashishi, Eke Agu, Amauzam Ohani, Mbulu Akpoko, Ezza Owo and Mbulu Emene.

The community’s petition, signed by Christopher Nnamuchi, Vincent Nnajiugo, Engr. Godwin Ngozi Nnaji, Elder Aga Nwannaji and Joe Ben Arum respectively, claims that Arum had unsuccessfully tried to impose himself on the throne since the regime of Dr. Chimaroke Nnamani as governor of the state.

“While the efforts lasted under the former governor, the community members had only tales of woes of the efforts of the Okeke Arum on the community as each person who voiced dissenting opinion on his Igweship was clamped down. We knew no peace then and he has severally and even recently been fingered as the sponsor of criminal group that have been causing trouble in Owo town”.

The community insists that it must follow due process in electing or selecting its monarch, and calls on Governor Chime to ignore anyone claiming to be their Igwe, Chief Arum inclusive. Efforts to speak to Arum by KlinReports were fruitless.

But be it as it may, KlinReports urges Governor Chime to quickly intervene to halt this crisis before it escalates into another full blown war akin to that between Oruku and Umuode. Delay is dangerous!