The invasion of the St Peter Anglican Church, Eziama Obaire, Nkwerre Local Government Area of Imo State and the arrest of Uche Nwosu, the son-in-law of a former governor of the state, Rochas Okorocha, is another chapter in the unending feud between Okorocha and the incumbent Governor, Hope Uzodimma, which has turned the state apart.
On December 2021, Ugwumba Uche Nwosu, the governorship candidate of the Action Alliance (AA) in the 2019 election, gathered the creme de la crème of the state at his Eziama Obaire country home to give his mother a befitting burial.
The funeral ceremony of the late Ezinne Jemaimah Adanweze Nwosu, aged 78, was filled with pageantry.
It was also attended by prominent persons in both the politics and economy of Nigeria. A surprise appearance was Chief Emeka Ihedioha, erstwhile governor of the state who was sacked by the Supreme Court on January 14, 2020, to pave way for Uzodimma’s.
It is believed in some quarters that the presence of Ihedioha might have sent jitters down the spines of the powers-that-be at the Douglas House. Prior to this, there was a rumoured romance between Ihedioha and the Okorocha camp, who parted ways after the 2019 elections.
The manner of Ihedioha’s removal drew many sympathisers, which led to the forging of alliances to edge Uzodimma out.
Uzodimma, having realised his level of popularity, knew that any alliance between his two arch enemies would spell doom for his second term aspiration. He, therefore, decided to take steps to dismantle their political structures.
His first action was to use the instrumentality of a judicial panel set up by Ihedioha to probe Okorocha’s eight-year tenure. That panel indicted Okorocha of massive land grabbing, accusing him of dispossessing many indigenes of the state of their landed property. Many choice properties belonging to Okorocha and his family were taken away and given back to people said to be their original owners.
Ihedioha did not also escape Uzodimma’s wrath as every attempt was made to erase his imprints in Imo.
Therefore, the Eziama Obaire gathering became a bitter pill for Uzodimma, who neither attended nor sent representatives to commiserate with his kinsman.
An indication that Uzodimma might have taken a special interest in the Eziama Obaire gathering was the suspension of three members of the House of Assembly who attended the funeral ceremony – Arthur Egwim (Ideato North), Ngozie Obiefule (Isu) and Obinna Okwara (Nkwerre).
However, more was to come for the Okorocha political family. Penultimate Sunday, December 26, Uche Nwosu gathered people for the outing ceremony of his mother. But the unthinkable happened.
Few minutes into the ceremony, some heavily armed policemen stormed the church, and in a commando style, abducted Nwosu, who was sitting comfortably listening to the clerics. Worshippers scampered out of the church as gunshots from the rampaging policemen rented the air.
The worshippers, who initially thought that it was kidnappers that struck, were bemused when it was later realised that the rampaging gunmen were actually men of the Nigerian police.
This was later confirmed by the police spokesperson in the state, Mike Abattam, who, in a statement, revealed that Nwosu was arrested by his men.
The manner the arrest was carried out has cast a big blow on the integrity of both the police and the Imo State Government.
The first reaction came from Okorocha, who told newsmen at his Spilbat mansion in Owerri that the action was taken by the state government to humiliate him and his family.
He said, “Uche Nwosu, my wife and daughter were in the church for an outing service when a group of men in police uniform invaded the place while sermon was ongoing and started shooting.
“They were identified as policemen from the Imo State Government House by their colleagues attached to Uche for the burial. I got the commissioner of police, who said the IGP approved his arrest.
“Such arrest without a warrant is unfortunate. Most security operatives in Imo know nothing about the arrest. The IGP could only do this on a high level misinformation from Hope Uzodinma. I am waiting to hear Nwosu’s offence.
“Uzodinma has to answer for most of the activities going on. He must mention the names of those who are responsible for insecurity in Imo State. Buhari should be informed about what is happening in Imo State.
“What is happening in Imo State is under reported. It is bad. How come it was only Abuja and the Imo State Government House that know about the arrest?
“I want to know the reason for the attack on a church. Why should Uche Nwosu be treated like a criminal? The Imo State Government should provide answers immediately. You can’t govern people by intimidation.”
Narrating his ordeal after his release, Nwosu said he was stripped naked, humiliated and treated like a criminal.
He said, “While sermon was ongoing, I saw some military people who came in. I asked my boys to go and welcome them because I thought they escorted a very important person to the church to condole with me over the death of my mother.
“All of a sudden, over 15 masked security operatives jumped into the church. While some rushed to the altar, some came to where I was sitting and ordered me to move or they would move me. They started shooting and disrupted the sermon. I demanded to know what was going on, but they said they had an instruction to bring me. They manhandled me and bundled me into one of the vehicles they came in. One of them ordered me to lie down, while one placed his leg on my head.
“When they drove off, they started making calls in Hausa, unknown to them that I understand the language. They were telling one Shaba, who is the chief security officer that they had got me. At Umuaka, they stopped and ordered that I should get down. At that point, I thought they were going to assassinate me. They bundled me into another vehicle and drove off.
“When we got to Owerri, three other vehicles were driven straight to the Government House and the one carrying me drove towards Okigwe road and I began to ask them where they were taking me to. But they never responded to me. They drove towards Okigwe and stopped. At that point I thought they wanted to kill me. They asked me to remove my cloths. They handcuffed me, snapped me, made a video and sent to the governor’s chief security officer.
“We continued until we got to Enugu airport. We waited for about one hour before a chartered flight arrived. We boarded it and landed in Abuja. We moved to the force headquarters and we did an interview. They accused me of sponsoring insecurity in Imo State. I want to thank the IGP who intervened and ordered my release.”
But the Commissioner for Information and Strategy in the state, Declan Emelumba, as well as the Senior Special Assistant on Local Media, Modestus Nwamkpa, described as baseless, any attempt to link the governor with the incident.
Emelumba said, “It is foolhardy for anyone to think that the governor had a hand in what happened at Eziama Obaire. The police have told the whole world that the action was taken after Uche Nwosu failed to respond to their invitation,” while
Nwamkpa said it was shadow-chasing to attribute the incident to Governor Uzodimma.
However, many residents of the state see the state government as being highly culpable in the incident.
Most of Uzodimma’s kinsmen who spoke to Daily Trust on Sunday said the incident was politics taken too far.
Also, an Orlu foremost sociopolitical organisation, Orlu Peoples Assembly (OPA), saw it as a cheap political blackmail by the governor.
An industrialist and chairman, Board of Directors of the OPA, Chief Fidel Anujuo, said, “That action is highly condemnable. It is a public relations disaster, not only for the police but also for the Imo State Government, which remained mute when it ought to have condemned not only the desecration of the holy place but the infringement on Nwosu’s right.
“It is only the governor and the people that can halt this uncomfortable and abysmal situation we have unfortunately found ourselves in.
“The watery apology from the spokesperson of the governor seems to me as an afterthought.”
In a statement titled, “Desecration of St Peter’s Church, Eziama Obaire, the archbishop of Anglican Province, Owerri (Feast of St John the Apostle), The Most Rev Dr David O. C Onuoha, described the day of the incident as a black Sunday.
He said the church would soon engage members of the Nigeria Police Force to ascertain the reasons for such sacrilegious act.
“Much as we are not concerned or interested in the reason for this invasion, which is unprecedented in the more than 160-year history of the church in this state, we are gravely worried and disturbed that worshippers were greatly frightened, worried, confused and completely disorganised by the presence of heavily armed security operatives in the church service, thereby disrupting the worship of God’s people.
“While the church is in support of, and have always been praying for the success of our security personnel in the daunting task and challenge of securing lives and property in our dear state, perpetrators/sponsors of this crime against humanity must be brought to book, no matter how highly placed they are. We warn that such act is capable of worsening the security challenges we are currently facing,” part of the statement reads.
Also, the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) described the incident as absurd.
The chairman of the association in Imo State, The Reverend Eches Divine-Eches advised policemen to always carry out their duties in a professional manner. He told them to shun actions capable of giving detractors and criminally-minded persons the opportunity to destroy their good work.
