The people of Opi in Nsukka local government and Ekwegbe in Igboetiti local government in Enugu State on Friday, marched to the government House, Enugu to protest the continued detention of their son and lawyer, Barr. Onyekachi Ugwu in Enugu Correctional Service over alleged kidnapping.
Barr. Ugwu who’s from Opi community and the lawyer to Ekwegbe community has been in detention for over 3 months over his arrest and arraignment for cyberstalking the former secretary to the State Government, Dr. Dan Shere.
It was gathered Ugwu was charged to a Magistrate Court in charge no CME/354c/23: COP v. Onyeka Ugwu on the 31/5/2023 which doesn’t have the jurisdiction to entertain the charge in the first place.
Efforts to secure his bail at the State High Court failed and same was taken to Federal High Court. The Federal high court fixed 18th July 2023 as a date to hear the motion on Ugwu’s bail application but Dr. Shere raised another charge (MEN/208c/2023) on 17th July, 2023 (a day before the Federal high court date) stating that Ugwu kidnapped him (Shere) on 27th October, 2022.
The production warrant for the kidnapping charges was fixed same day for hearing of Ugwu’s bail application of the first charges at the Federal high court on 18th July, 2023 which frustrated the effort grant him bail.
Worried by his continued detention without any charge as the Magistrate Court declined jurisdiction to try the new charges, the communities on Friday, 8th September, 2023, marched to the government House to seek the help of the Governor for the release of their son and lawyer.
Addressing Journalists after submitting their petition to a representative of the Governor, the mother of the lawyer, Mrs. Monica Ugwu pleaded with Dr. Shere to bring whatever the matter is home to be resolved amicably and called on the government to come to her aid.
Mrs. Ugwu who broke down in tears said: “My son who has been a great friend confidant of Dr. Shere has been in detention for 4 months. I don’t know what went wrong and the brotherhood they shared was destroyed.
“I’ve gone on my knees to beg Dr. Shere to please bring the matter home let us know what went wrong but he has ignored all my pleas.”
When asked what he was told her son did, the teary mother 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 isn’t a Kidnapper, he’s lawyer and was contracted by Ekwegbe people.
“He’s a brother to Dan Shere, they’re from the same village and community, the day they came to kill Onyeka was because he’s standing with Dan and I don’t know the cause of this misunderstanding between the two of them.
“I’m on knees and begging the government and Dr. Shere to please come to my aid and let my son free. For over 4 months I haven’t seen my son, the only thing I was told is that he’s in a yard,” Mrs. Ugwu stuttered while sobbing uncontrollably.
Also speaking, Chief Fidelis Nweze from Ekwegbe community said they contracted Barr. Ugwu to help them secure their over 2,000 plots of land which they’re at the risk of losing to some persons.
“We’re stranded because we don’t know what’s happening because we have always known Onyekachi and he can’t be a kidnapper.”
Explaining the controversy surrounding the land, Chief Nweze said they never sold their land but went into an agreement with the owners of Winners Chapel to release the land to them for a University project.
“Six villages in our community donated their lands to the church because we know of the enormous benefits a university will bring to our community.
“We have lost the university because the church didn’t come again to develop the land again as they promised and we’re supposed to sit down with them and put the oral promises made to our people on paper as well as tidy the negotiations.
“They promised to give our children Scholarship, make our son a member of the governing council of the University, 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’s not enough to buy the land.
Conclusively, he called on the Governor, Peter Mbah, whom he described as a listening leader to come to their aid and ensure the release of their lawyer and their land not encroached into.
All efforts to contact Dr. Shere for comments failed as he’s yet to respond to SMS sent to his mobile line.
