Tobias Osukwu Sues Abia State Commissioner For Lands, Others For Human Rights Infringement

 Tobias Osukwu Sues Abia State Commissioner For Lands, Others For Human Rights Infringement The President-General of Amaokwe Ugba Community,...

 Tobias Osukwu Sues Abia State Commissioner For Lands, Others For Human Rights Infringement

The President-General of Amaokwe Ugba Community, Ibeku, Chief Tobias Osukwu has instituted legal proceedings against the Commissioner for Lands and Survey, Dr. Chidi Onwuchuruba (KSM), and seven other respondents for violating his fundamental rights to personal liberty. Among the respondents are the Commissioner of Police, Abia State Command, the Assistant Inspector-General of Police, Zone 9, as well as two other individuals (Ikechukwu Matthew Nwoko and Friday Adiele) who unduly acquired dozens of plots in Amaokwe’s ancestral Ụzọ-Ubi land through the facilitation of Dr. Onwuchuruba.

In his motion, Chief Osukwu declared that the police were instigated by Dr. Chidi Onwuchuruba in concert with Ikechukwu Matthew Nwoko and Friday Adiele and cohorts to repeatedly arrest and detain him (and some other members of his community) for days on the same issue of “land dispute” that is already being handled by the High Court in Umuahia. He also declared that the respondents' actions were “unlawful, wrongful and unconstitutional” and had “violated” his “fundamental rights to personal liberty”. The matter has been slated to be heard in the High Court in Umuahia on Tuesday 7th June 2022. This recent development follows the violent incident that happened on Friday 15th April 2022 where a gang of cultists loyal to Senator Ahamefula Orji and Abia State Speaker Chinedum Orji hacked some Amaokwe people with machetes and abducted a couple of others. It was also reported that the police were called in by Chief Tobias Osukwu and that they arrested two suspects who were released the following day at the behest of Sen. Orji.

The investigations done by a correspondent of Family Writers Press International(FWPI) revealed that three weeks after the cultists' attack that left several Amaokwe Ugba people brutalized and traumatised, Mr. Matthew Nwoko took some policemen from the Central Police Station, Umuahia, arrested and detained Chief Tobias Osukwu and other victims of that attack, in order to prevent them from attending an inquisitional meeting arranged by the Commissioner of Police between the cult-attack victims and the suspects on 4th May 2022. Though Chief Osukwu and the others were eventually released later that day on the express order of the Commissioner of Police, that meeting did not hold. Then on 9th May, Mr. Matthew Nwoko and one of the suspects, again, led another group of policemen from Zone 9 Police Station to arrest Chief Osukwu and victims of the cultist attack, and then detained them for two days. In both arrests, the “contractor” Mr. Ikechukwu Matthew Nwoko told the police that Chief Osukwu and the other cult-attack victims were “kidnappers” and were in “illegal possession of firearms”.

From what the FWPI correspondent gathered, Chief Tobias Osukwu has left his hometown for a safe location due to threats to kill him by the cultists.

A Press Statement made by IPOB in early May, even mentioned Senator Ahamefula Orji and Chinedum Orji among two other politicians in Abia State as some of the sponsors of cultism in the state, and who “recruits fake Eastern Security Network(ESN) outfits and cultists that have been unleashing mayhems on the south easterners of Abia State, all for some selfish political reasons.

Just now as I am putting down this report, I got informed reliably that the cultists again, invaded Chief Osukwu's home last night, dawning the 7th of June, 2022, ahead of the slated court hearing on same date. Thankfully, Chief Osukwu was not in the house, but the report says his wife and children were beaten and harassed excessively by the cultists. They even threatened to take away Mrs Osukwu, but changed their minds.

Chinyere Akobundu, Reporting for

Family Writers Press International