Posted by By GODDY OSUJI, Enugu on
The President of Iwollo Town Union Enugu State, Mr Tony Akpata has his God to thank for saving his life.
* Later found in a bush with injuries
The President of Iwollo Town Union Enugu State, Mr Tony Akpata has his God to thank for saving his life.
Akpata told Daily Sun that some youths from Akama Oghe, Ezeagu Local Government Area Enugu State had, in a kamikaze fashion abducted him a fortnight ago.
According to him, it was the timely intervention of some concerned citizens that rescued him from the jaws of death. But his freedom from his abductors was not without bruises inflicted on him by the youths who roughhandled him in a bushy hideout.
Lamenting his predicament, the union president said that the crisis that led to his abduction left some people battered and property worth several thousands of naira torched by the rampaging youths from both sides of the communities.
The two communities of Iwollo and Akama were drawn into hostility as a result of the crisis that erupted shortly after the leadership of Iwollo Town Union was abducted by the angry youths. 'Trouble started when a gang of youths numbering about 30 unleashed mayhem on the people of Iwollo, abducting the president of the town union and his officials in a commando like manner and whisked them away into a tick forest with their victims' hands tied and also blindfolded", Akpata said.
An eye witness account also revealed that the gang which called itself Igbo Youths Front sporadically shot from the Afor Iwollo market square before heading to the residence of the town union president.
'It was when the president, Tony Akpata raised an alarm that the hoodlums started firing gun shots into the air to scare people away before finally taking him and his battered men away, Daily Sun learnt.
Daily Sun was further told that on getting into the jungle where two fresh graves had already been dug, the youths, tied their victims to trees and beat them with gun-butts and other dangerous weapons, while at the same time reminding them that they were paying for their stubbornness.
However, families of the victims who watched helplessly when their breadwinners were violently taken away dispatched message to their relations who in turn invited the leaders of thought in Iwollo as well as the police.
It was further gathered that when all the invitees assembled at the market square, the chairman of Ezeagu-North, Development Center, Okey Ozoani volunteered to organize a search party for the irate youths, and after a successful negotiation with them at their base in the jungle, secured the release of Akpata while others were still held hostage.
It was while Ozoani was persuading the youths into coming to a round table negotiation for the release of the remaining hostages that the police rounded them up and took them to the Police Headquarters for interrogation.
Daily Sun also learnt that when the youths of Iwollo went on rampage to protest the ugly incident, they reportedly beat up and destroyed the property of one of the suspected planners of the kidnap operation who incidentally was a native of neighboring Akama community. As the confusion lasted, the wife of the suspect ran home to Akama and allegedly told her people. Angered by this pathetic story, the Akama youths converged and blocked the Akama end of the 9th mile-Eke-Oghe Road stopped and searched every vehicle plying the road, and every Iwollo indigene spotted in the vehicles was forced out and beaten up.
This incident, according to an eyewitness, lasted for several hours unchecked and prompting the people of Iwollo to convene an emergency meeting to counter the actions of Akama youths to avoid the escalation of the crisis before the quick intervention of elders saved the situation.
Daily Sun learnt that prior to the attack, the town union and the chairman of Ezeagu North Development Centre Okey Ozoani were having a running battle over the unilateral sale of spaces and stalls at the popular Afor Iwollo market without recourse to the pleas and representation of the Town Union and other stakeholders resulting in wanton displacement of bona fide owners of these stalls as well as petty traders who are predominantly peasant farmers in the village.
Aggrieved by the incident the town union convened on emergency meeting, and just a day to the meeting date, two hefty men allegedly visited the residence of the town union president and warned Akpata not to attend the meeting or have himself to blame.
It was reliably gathered that during the emergency meeting, Okey Ozoani who was reportedly in attendance was said to have challenged the president of the town union and his officials for daring to interfere in the sale of the market stalls.
Speaking to Daily Sun the president of the town union, Tony Akpata said that he went through hell and thanked God for keeping him alive.
A visibly shaken Akpata is recuperating after the encounter and had cigarette burns as well as other serious wounds on his legs, hands and neck.
He told Daily Sun that it was not as if the town union was against development, but the development should be people oriented, and wondered why suspected thugs should be used against him and his officials to achieve their goal. Akpata explained that the market was their traditional market which their fore-fathers established to enable peasant farmers sell their farm produce in order to have money to buy their domestic needs, adding that Ozoani could as well establish new market in addition to that existing one or alternatively make provision to accommodate villagers by leaving open space instead of building lock-up stalls all over the place.
He said that even those who paid for the allocation ranging from N20, 000.00 to N50, 000.00 were not given official receipts to authenticate their ownership, adding that the position of the town union was to ensure orderliness in the overall interest of the people, especially those who sell palm wine, palm oil and other vegetable products.
Akpata said that because of his role in the matter, he was on one occasion rounded up by thugs in the market but when some of them recognised him, they refrained from harming him, adding that the action of the thugs caused confusion in the market as everybody scampered for safety.
He said that he petitioned the commissioner for local government who after meeting with the authorities of the Ezeagu-North discovered that the council has no records of such sales.
Akpata however said that some of the hoodlums that attacked him were arrested by the police and later charged to Agu-Obu Owa magistrate court, but expressed surprise that the police withdrew the case on account of inconclusive investigation.
Reacting, the Chairman of Ezeagu North Development Council Okey Ozoani denied all the allegations against him . He further said that the town union president used his position to organise miscreants who destroyed the market and argued that markets in the state are the responsibility of the local government. To that extent therefore, the town union has no control over the market, he claimed.
Ozoani further claimed that what the development center did was to reconstruct the market and build them into stalls to secure their owners and their goods.