An Ebonyi state based legal practitioner, Barrister Christopher Ajah, has dragged the Deputy Speaker of Ebonyi State House of Assembly, Hon Chinedu Onah, and the Regent of Umuogodu Oshia in Ohaukwu Local Government Area, Prince Uche Aliega to court for alleged intimidation and threats to his life in connection with a legal case involving his clients.
Ajah, a solicitor with Augustine I. O & Co Orrin Chambers, counsel to members of the Ugwoke Ogene (Ngada Ogwu group), in a dispute involving masquerade practices in Ohaukwu and alleged human rights violations.
According to Ajah, on June 10, 2024, a group of thugs, allegedly led by Hon Onah and Prince Aliega, attacked his clients, who are members of the Ugwoke Ogene cultural group.
He further stated that his clients were engaged in a peaceful procession to fulfill a traditional Ngbo cultural practice that mandates offering kola nuts to the elders at Okwo Market during Omabe year.
After completing the ceremony, as they were returning towards Umuogodu Oshia, they were ambushed by the thugs, allegedly acting on instructions from the Ngbo Leaders Council.
However, the council reportedly banned masquerade processions and mandated the practice of Christianity, prohibiting African traditional practices.
Ajah’s clients, including Emmanuel Ebenyi, Awoke James, Aburo Samuel, Ifeanyi Onwe, and four others, were assaulted, arrested, and detained for eight days by the police, despite not committing any crimes.They were later released but were unable to meet the conditions imposed on them.
Ajah’s clients were forced to pay ₦400,000 to the Ngbo Leaders Council, with only ₦150,000 paid so far. They were also asked to sign an undertaking to abandon African traditional practices in favor of Christianity and to provide a ten-year life insurance policy, holding them responsible for any harm to Hon Onah or Prince Aliega.
As the issue continued to escalate, Ajah filed a suit on August 22, 2024, at the Federal High Court in Abakaliki with (Suit No. FHC/AI/CS/FHR/156) to enforce his clients’ fundamental human rights.
Adding “On Sunday 6th October, 2024, my client’s son called me at 11:30pm in the night that police has rearrested his Father Mr. Emmanuel Eze Ebenyi and took him to an unknown destination, which l assured him that I will go to the police headquarters the following day.
“On getting there I saw three of them at the anti kidnapping unit and the IPO told me to go to magistrate court, but the court did not sit on that day, and the case was scheduled for Thursday.
“On Thursday morning by 4:30 am, I and my wife heard a knock at the door, three policemen were at the door, and they told me that they are policemen from police headquarters and that I was under arrest, I pleaded with them that they should allow me come later as I was handling my case for my clients, which they refused my plea.
“I requested for their warrant of arrest but they couldn’t produce any, they insisted on arresting me. So my wife brought a t-shirt and a trouser for me since I was in my boxers. I wore it and they took me to a Black Toyota car with a red interior and drove off.
“Instead of taking me to the police station, they took me inside a bush in Ezza through Ukwuachi along Abakaliki Enugu highway.They drove until the car got stuck at a place and couldn’t move, which they called for another car, a hilux came with covered plate number belonging to Chinedu Onah.
“They later took me to the Commissioner of Police Monitoring Unit, CMU at the liberation estate, and handed me over to them.
“It was there I was asked if I had a problem with the Deputy Speaker and I said no that I am only a counsel to my client in a matter they are having with him which include the police.
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“Later the OC in charge of the case released me and said I was not under arrest, there is no petition written against me by anyone to the commissioner of police. That Chinedu Onah and Prince Uche Aliega and their group want me dead because of a case I’m doing that did not favour them.
“During the search for me, my wife and brother met Chinedu Onah at the court and he told them that I’m at CMU at the liberation estate.
“I’m pleading to the Ebonyi state government to come to my aid because I’m doing my legal duty,” he stated.
In response to the allegations, both Hon. Onah and Prince Aliega denied any personal involvement in the lawyer’s alleged intimidation or arrest and stressed the importance of allowing the courts to resolve the matter.
According to the deputy Speaker, Onah said ,“this is a matter before the court, and I don’t know the lawyer personally. The decision to restrict masquerade activities in the market was made by the Ngbo Leaders Council, not by me. We are not trying to stop the culture but protect the rights of others,” he maintained.
Prince Aliega, also addressed the situation, adding, “the masquerade activities have escalated into cultism, armed robbery, and other crimes.
“The local government legislated against masquerade activities in major roads and markets in 2023 to curb these excesses. I helped facilitate the release of the individuals after their arrest, but the situation has escalated on social media and in court.”
“Ngbo nation said if you bring this masquerade to the market, you pay eighty thousand, five of them is 450,000 naira and they now paid 150,000, remaining 300,000. That was when I now intervened.
“Only five were arrested and those five were masquerade and we expect that the spirit should fight for themselves, let me bring to your attention that nobody was been coerced into that payment, nobody is been forced into religious conversion, I will never stop anybody from that which he believe in as a religion,” he stated.
