AWKA – Twenty-eight-year-old Mrs. Ebere Okonkwo, has remained a shadow of her old self, since her husband, Dubuem Okonkwo, a member of Tricycle Owners Association of Nigeria (TOAN), Awka branch, was arrested by police on March 15, 2022.
The 45-year-old was picked up at Unizik junction park by the police and was later paraded with other suspects by the state’s Commissioner of Police Mr. Echen Echen.
However, 48 days after Dubem also known as Aka Omere-ora was arrested, his wife, Ebere is left to manage their 22 month-old Amanda, without any information about her hubby.
The embittered woman, told The Guardian that efforts to see her husband have failed.
She called on President Muhammadu Buhari, The Inspector-General of Police and good spirited Nigerians to help her and the daughter see her husband again.
According to her, the case was more complicated that apart from the fact that Dubem’s picture was sighted among those paraded at the Police headquarters on March 16, his name was not listed among the suspects in the statement released by the state’s PRO, Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Toochukwu Ikenga.
Ikenga said: “On Tuesday 15th March, 2022 information was received that a cult group had launched an attack on Unizik vigilante group at miracle junction, ifite, Awka.
“Police operatives were mobilised to lay ambush for the gang as they fled from the scene. The effort paid off as the Police succeeded in demobilising the gang and recovering a cache of weapons, which included the two AK-47 rifles earlier stolen from the two policemen murdered on December 14, 2021.
“The following are the weapons and other items recovered; two Ak47, three pump actions guns, three locally made beretta pistols, one local-made chief recover pistol, nine Ak-47 magazines, two battle axes, assorted ammunition for the firearms above and the Mercedes Benz V-Booth marked Lagos HC 661 AAA, with which the gang was operating was also recovered.
Ebere and daughter
“The leader of the gang, one Uchenna Nwobu a.k.a Anali was killed, while the other gang member was arrested. Investigation is ongoing aimed at tracking down other members of the gang and establishing the rightful owner of the recovered car.”
But narrating inability to locate her husband, Ebere said the Police PRO told them that her husband was arrested with some other people but did not disclose his crime.
She stressed that her husband is not a cultist, but rather peace loving since they married.
She said: “They told me that he was a suspected informant to cultists but ever since I and our lawyers visited the office of the PRO severally with my husband’s younger brother with the intention of setting my eyes on him to ascertain what actually happened, I have not seen him.
“On several occasions, the police PRO directed us to Awkuzu SARS and we were all the time denied access. Our lawyer petitioned the Commissioner of Police, Echen Echen, on April 6 2022, but we never got any response from him.
“At first, the PRO, Mr. Ikenga, directed us to Awkuzu SARS, where we spent so much time looking for him there and never saw him.
“We went to PRO two days ago, the lawyer and I; he told us that we should go and see the Commissioner of Police
“When we called the Commissioner of Police, he directed us to the state CID, our lawyer visited the state CID, but never found him there.
Also, the family had, through their lawyer, S.O Iwuba of Standard Trust Chambers, written to the commissioner of police, requesting to see the detainee but nothing came out of it.
In the letter dated April 4 and titled: “Application to See Mr. Chidubem Okonkwo in your custody”, the family appealed to the commissioner to use his office to order Awkuzu SARS to grant them access to the detainee.
The Guardian learnt that the letter was physically delivered to the Commissioner of Police, yet nothing came out of it.
Contacted on phone, spokesperson for Anambra State Police Command, Toochukwu Ikenga, dropped the call on hearing the man’s name. He neither picked subsequent calls nor responded to text messages sent to his phone. (The Guardian, Nigeria)
