Enugu communities protest detention of son, Ugwu without trial

The people of Opi and Ekwegbe communities in Enugu State have marched to the Government House to protest the continued detention of their son, Mr. Onyekachi Ugwu, in the Enugu Custodial Centre over alleged kidnapping.

Ugwu, who is from the Opi community and counsels the Ekwegbe community in land matters, had been in detention for over three months over his arrest for alleged cyber-stalking (the use of digital technology to harass someone) against the former Secretary to the State Government, Dr. Dan Shere.

It was gathered that when the bail application for Ugwu (a lawyer) came up at the Enugu Magistrate Court, Shere brought in a new petition against Ugwu as one of the persons that masterminded his (Shere’s) kidnapping on October 27, 2022.

Worried by his continued detention without any charge as the Magistrate Court declined jurisdiction to try the new charges, members of the communities marched to the Government House to seek Gov. Peter Mbah’s intervention for the release of their son.

Addressing Journalists after submitting their petition to a representative of Gov. Peter Mbah on Saturday, Ugwu’s mother, Mrs. Monica Ugwu, pleaded with Shere to bring home the matter to be resolved amicably.

Mrs. Ugwu, who broke down in tears, said: “My son, who has been a great friend and confidant of Dr. Shere, has been in detention for almost four months. I don’t know what went wrong or why the brotherhood they shared was destroyed.

“I have gone on my knees to beg Dr. Shere to please bring the matter home and let us know what went wrong, but he has ignored all my pleas.”

When asked what her son’s offence was, Mrs. Ugwu said: “My son is a lawyer, and they said he was offering legal services to the people of Ekwegbe, and that was the problem.

“In the midst of that, we started hearing that he was involved in kidnapping. My son is not a kidnapper; he is a lawyer and was contracted by the Ekwegbe community.

“He is a brother to Dan Shere; they are from the same village and community. I am on my knees and begging the government and Dr. Shere to please come to my aid and free my son.

“For almost four months I have not seen my son; the only thing I was told is that he is in a correctional service yard,” Mrs. Ugwu said while sobbing uncontrollably.

Also speaking, Chief Fidelis Nweze from the Ekwegbe community said they (the Ekwegbe people) contracted Ugwu to help them secure their over 2,000 plots of land, which they are at risk of losing to some people.

“We are stranded. We don’t know what is happening because we have always known Ugwu, and he cannot be a kidnapper,” Nweze said.

Explaining the controversy surrounding the land, he said they never sold their land but entered into an agreement with the owners of Winners Chapel to release the land to them for a University Project.

He further explained: “Six villages in our community donated their lands to the church, which intends to build a university, and we freely gave out the lands because we know of the enormous benefits a university will bring to our community.

“We have lost the university because the church did not come again to develop the land as they promised.

“We are supposed to sit down with them and put the oral promises made to our people on paper as well as tidy up the negotiations.

“They promised to offer our children scholarships, make our son a member of the governing council of the University, and give us a percentage of the work force for the junior cadre. They also promised to give the contract for the perimeter fencing to our people.”

He disclosed that the university never paid them for the land but made a monetary commitment to them, which they said was a paltry sum because it was not enough to buy the land.

Conclusively, Nweze called on Gov. Mbah, whom he described as a listening leader, to come to their aid and ensure the release of their lawyer and that their land was not encroached upon.

All efforts to contact Dr. Shere for comments failed, as he’s yet to respond to several calls and phone messages sent to his mobile line on the matter.