… As Governor Ugwuanyi is yet to speak on the development
The aboriginal people of Akpawfu town in Nkanu East Local Government Area of Enugu State have raised alarm over unwarranted wanton razing of their homes and killing of innocent indigenes of their communities by suspected cult gang alleged to be sponsored by the traditional ruler of Ajame Ameze, Igwe Christopher Nnamani.
Trouble worsened when the traditional ruler in December 2022 recruited young people from unknown places, bought guns and motorbikes and gave to them to start terrorizing the people.
Igwe Christopher Nnamani and his gang allegedly went into an agreement with a notorious outlawed group which he camped at the communal forest. However, after sometime, they began to renege on their deal with the group which brought a rift between the Igwe and his closest ally in the Community and the outlawed group.
When it became obvious that he could not manage the deploring relationship between him and his cohorts on one part and the notorious group, he began to accuse other families, umuanigbiyovo oyiwode, in the town as having infiltrated them and posing a threat to him, calling them derogatory and inhuman names.
In an attempt to arrest the worsening relationship between the Igwe and his group, and the outlaws, he now quickly organized those he recruited in 2022 into a private Army, took them to a state outside Enugu for fortification, particularly with local bullet proof charms.
As soon as they returned from this mission, they began mounting road blocks, beating and maiming people, and degenerated to shooting and killing the people all over Akpawfu Oyiwode.
In an attempt to quell the now worrisome situation, Nkanu East Local Government Council Chairman, Mr Sydney Ede set up a Peace Committee which included the traditional ruler of Obodo Uvuru, Akpawfu, HRH Igwe Dume Nnamoko.
The peace committee’s entreaties to Igwe Christopher Nnamani’s co-travellers and his private army to lay down their weapons fell on deaf ears, rather they went on a maiming and killing spree, going house to house particularly of descents of umuanigbiyovo oyiwode.
Igwe Christopher Nnamani
To make bad situation worse, Igwe Nnamani’s private Army having sacked Akpawfu town with remains of some of the dead deposited in hospital mortuary, they are hellbent on igniting inter communal war as on April 28, 2023, they went to Akpugo town where they killed one Ugochukwu Ede-Nnamani who ran to the neighbouring town for refuge. His body is still deposited in the mortuary as at the time of filing this report.
According to Desmond Ani-Okewa, a businessman from Ajame Ameze community who resides in Lagos, “Igwe Christopher Nnamani who retired from the defunct Nigerian Telecommunications Limited (NITEL) expected to exhibit uprightness in his dealings with our brothers has turned out to be a disgrace to us all”.
The young successful businessman who owns a flourishing departmental mall at Agbara area of Lagos laments that the rogue attitude of Igwe Nnamani is the reason the other families (umuanigbiyovo oyiwode) whom they have been coexisting harmoniously with now classify them in a derogatory manner as ‘aka ishii’, noting that his family, the Ani-Okewa Ede of Ajame Ameze is not a party to his planned annihilation of a people and other atrocities been perpetrated by him.
Speaking to our reporter another indigene of the community who pleaded anonymity noted that “the excoriation of Igwe Christopher Nnamani by the people has become necessary as the killings and arson are getting out of control in a town hitherto known for harmonious living. His style of leadership is causing us untold hardship”.
“How can a man who calls himself my traditional ruler, recruit unknown faces, arm them with pump action and motorcycles to be terrorizing our old men and women, and our youth,” he said.
When asked whether they have brought the matter to the attention of the authorities and Enugu State Governor, Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi, they said their people have written a petition to the police and the state government, but one of them was quick to retort, “what will Ugwuanyi do, nothing”?
In his reaction to newsmen on the matter, Igwe Christopher Nnamani dismissed the allegation, noting that it is a case of ‘kettle calling pot black’.
