Posted by By PETRUS OBI, Abakaliki on
Deputy Speaker of the Ebonyi State House of Assembly, Chief Sabinus Nwankwegu and Chairman of Ozibo Local Government Area of the state, Hon. Donatus Ojimba, have been quizzed by the police over the murder of a traditional ruler in the state.
Deputy Speaker of the Ebonyi State House of Assembly, Chief Sabinus Nwankwegu and Chairman of Ozibo Local Government Area of the state, Hon. Donatus Ojimba, have been quizzed by the police over the murder of a traditional ruler in the state.
The Deputy Speaker and the chairman were alleged to be guests of the police over the death of Eze Innocent Nwodom of the Oguzoronweya Community in Ozibo LGA.
When Daily Sun visited the Ebonyi State Police headquarters on Monday, it was gathered that the Deputy Speaker and the local government chairman had gone home following the intervention of the speaker of the state Assembly, Hon. Omo Christopher Isu.
Eze Nwodom, whose corpse has been deposited at the Federal Medical Centre mortuary, Abakaliki, sustained multiple machete cuts on February 3, 2005 and died seven days later.
A reliable source told Daily Sun that the crisis between the Deputy Speaker and the traditional ruler started from a land dispute. The traditional ruler was said to have complained to the chairman of Ozibo Local Government Area over the land issue.
Intervention by the state Commissioner for Local Government and Chieftaincy Matters, Chief Oke Oroke, to resolve the issue, along with other stakeholders reportedly failed as the Deputy Speaker insisted that it was the local government chairman, as the Chief Security officer of the council, who had power to handle the issue.
Before his death, Eze Innocent Nwodom had petitioned the Police and other security agents over the threat to his life.
In one of such petitions, entitled "Save Our Souls. A report on Planned Action to Destroy my Property and Exterminate my Family," the late Eze alerted the state Commissioner of Police of plans to kill him.
The letter, dated December 4, 2004, stated inter alia: "Now that they have fixed a date that they will come and destroy my property and exterminate my life, it is as sure as death.
"That is the reason I am appealing to you for protection. Do not allow me to be killed before any action is taken. All efforts must be made to arrest and detain them because nobody is above the law.".
Also, in a letter to the Ebonyi State Governor, dated February 11, 2005 the widow of the Eze, Lolo Ugoeze Innocent Nwodom, through her counsel, Fryde Akpore, stated: "The genesis of his death is the land dispute between Hon. Sabinus Nwankwegu and the deceased."
When our reporter visited Abakaliki police headquarter on Monday, the Deputy Speaker was seen there. He revealed that he was there to take some mobile policemen to his area, which, according to him, was on fire.
On the murder allegations against him; he said: "I did not kill anyone. How can I kill the same traditional ruler that conferred a chieftaincy title on me?"