Leaders of Abagana, headquarters of Njikoka Local Government Area of<\/p>\n
Anambra State have asked the Inspector General of Police Mr. Ibrahim Idris
\nto prosecute Chairman of Atlas Oranto Petroleum, Prince Arthur Eze for
\nunleashing violence on the town.<\/p>\n
The leaders, under the aegis of Abagana Welfare Union, urged the top
\npolice boss to sanction the Anambra State Commissioner of Police Mr.
\nSamuel Okaula, Area Commander Longe, as well as the Divisional officers
\nfor Njikoka and Dunukofia local government areas, police officers the town
\nunion said have been heavily compromised by Prince Arthur Eze.<\/p>\n
Dated August 29, 2016, the petition faulted Police Commissioner Okaula\u2019s
\nrecent claim that 23 persons he paraded in Awka were terrorists.\u00a0 On the
\ncontrary, said the petitioners, Arthur Eze had been using the police to
\nterrorize law-abiding residents of Abagana. The petition was signed on
\nbehalf of the Union by Barrister Emma Ifeadike.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are constrained to draw your attention to mounting threats to the
\npeace, law and order of Abagana community by the Commissioner of Police,
\nAnambra State, Mr. Samuel Okaula, the Area Commander (Awka) ACP Longe, as
\nwell as the Divisional Police Officers in charge of Dunukofia and Njikoka
\nLGAs by their bid to forcefully take over the ancestral land of Abagana
\ncommunity, at the instigation of Prince Arthur Eze,\u201d began the petition.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe aforementioned police officers, who ought to be officers of the law
\nhave, quite regrettably become pawns on the chessboard of this moneybag
\nwhose clich\u00e9 is \u201cevery man has a price\u201d and that \u201cwhen money talks,
\nbullshit works.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe genesis of this is a lingering land dispute between Abagana and Ukpo
\ntowns. Even though the expanse of land historically belongs to Abagana,
\nthe people of Ukpo led by Prince Aurthur Eze and his brother, the
\ntraditional ruler of the town, Igwe Robert Eze, have been laying claim to
\nthe land- the same way they have been falsely laying claims to lands
\nbelonging to Enugwu-Agidi and Abba towns.<\/p>\n
\u201cA High Court of Anambra State had earlier given judgment in favour of
\nUkpo. Dissatisfied with the judgment, Abagana filed an appeal before the
\nCourt of Appeal, Enugu. The Appeal is listed as CA\/E\/86\/2002 and motion
\nCA\/110M\/2015.<\/p>\n
\u201cDespite the pendency of the appeal, Prince Arthur Eze, with cover from
\nthe heavily compromised COMPOL Samuel Okaula and over 200 armed policemen
\nand vigilante from Ukpo, moved bulldozers and allied earthmoving equipment
\ninto the disputed land. As Abagana people watched helplessly, the machines
\nbulldozed their homes, graves, farmlands and economic trees. To secure the
\ncaptured territory, Prince Arthur Eze built a police post thereon, and
\nwith illegal police protection hurriedly began building up the place,
\napparently to frustrate the upcoming appeal.<\/p>\n
\u201cOn August 19, 2016, there were reports of an attack on properties erected
\nby Prince Arthur Eze on the disputed lands. From every indication, the
\ndestruction of properties was orchestrated by Prince Arthur Eze himself,
\nto rope in the leaders of Abagana community. Few hours later in the
\nmorning of August 20, 2016, COMPOL Okaula, working according to plans with
\nPrince Arthur Eze, personally led an operation to Abagana and arrested
\nscores of people believed to be close to Chief Emmanuel Nwude, Owelle
\nAbagana whom he suspected was financing the attack and court case against
\nUkpo.<\/p>\n
\u201cCuriously, barely 24 hours after the reported attack, COMPOL Samuel
\nOkaula addressed a world press conference where he paraded 10 workers of
\nEM Guest Inn, Abagana, owned by High Chief Emmanuel Nwude. Without any
\nshred of evidence, and in clear departure from what had originally been
\ndubbed \u201cCase of Conspiracy and Murder\u201d, COMPOL Samuel Okaula tagged the
\narrestees \u201cterrorists\u201d, just to appeal to his financier Prince Arthur Eze.
\nQuite laughably, COMPOL Okaula has manufactured \u201cdangerous weapons\u201d
\nincluding arms and ammunition, which he claimed the \u201cterrorists\u201d used to
\nattack the police post.<\/p>\n
Continued the petition, \u201cIt might interest you to note that COMPOL Okaula
\nhas since ordered the release of ALL suspects from Prince Arthur Eze\u2019s
\ntown Ukpo arrested in the Abagana raid, confirming his partisanship. My
\nclients strongly believe that COMPOL Samuel Okaula has declared war on
\nAbagana. Prominent sons of Abagana lucky to have escaped arrest have gone
\ninto hiding, as Prince Arthur Eze boasts that he has the resources to get
\nthe police arrest One million people, if need be,\u201d stated the petitioners.<\/p>\n
They appealed to the police boss to \u201corder COMPOL Samuel Okaula to
\nimmediately release all persons arrested in the wake of the latest round
\nof clashes between Abagana and Ukpo youth, as the youth of Abagana are
\nbecoming restive with each passing day,\u201d stressing, \u201calternatively they
\nshould be charged to court.\u201d<\/p>\n
Aside urging the Inspector General of Police to \u201cdirect the take-over of
\ninvestigation into the most recent bout of violence on the Abagana-Ukpo
\nborder as the Commissioner of Police Anambra and the aforementioned
\nofficers have largely compromised their positions and can no longer be
\ntrusted to conduct an impartial investigation,\u201d the petition asked him to
\n\u201cinvestigate Prince Arthur Eze for terrorizing the peace-loving people of
\nAbagana.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Leaders of Abagana, headquarters of Njikoka Local Government Area of Anambra State have asked the Inspector General of Police Mr. Ibrahim Idris to prosecute Chairman of Atlas Oranto Petroleum, Prince…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":52289,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-52752","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-exclusive"],"yoast_head":"\n