As a form of protest over Onyekachi Ugwu’s continuing arrest in Enugu Custodial Centre on charges of alleged kidnapping, residents of the Opi and Ekwegbe towns in Enugu State have marched to the Government House.
Dr. Dan Shere, the former Secretary to the State Government, has accused Ugwu of cyber-stalking (the use of digital technology to harass someone).
According to reports, on October 27, 2022, when Ugwu’s (a lawyer) bail application was heard at Enugu Magistrate Court, Shere filed a new case against Ugwu for his role in Shere’s kidnapping.
Community members marched to Government House to petition Governor Peter Mbah to intervene in their son’s case after the Magistrate Court rejected authority to try the fresh charges.
Monica Ugwu, Ugwu’s mother, addressed reporters after delivering a petition to a representative of Governor Mbah on Saturday, pleading with Shere to return home and try to resolve the conflict peacefully.
While sobbing, Ugwu stated, “My son, who has been a wonderful friend and confidant of Dr. Shere, has been in custody for about four months.
The bonds of brotherhood they had been building were broken for reasons I cannot fathom.
I begged Dr. Shere to bring the subject home and explain what happened, but he has ignored my pleadings.
Ugwu added, “My son is a lawyer, and they said he was offering legal services to the people of Ekwegbe, and that was the problem.”
During that time, rumours began to circulate that he was involved in kidnapping.
My son is not a person who would kidnap somebody.
The Ekwegbe community hired him because he is a lawyer.
Brother of Dan Shere, he is.
They both hail from the same small town.
I’m pleading with the government and Dr. Shere to help me get my son out of here.
I haven’t seen my son in almost four months.
As far as I know, he is currently being held in a (correctional service) yard.
Chief Fidelis Nweze of the Ekwegbe village added that his people had hired Ugwu to protect the approximately 2,000 parcels of land they had been threatened with losing.
We are stranded,” Nweze remarked.
To paraphrase, “We don’t know what is happening because we have always known Ugwu and he cannot be a kidnapper.”
They never sold their land, he added, but they did enter into an arrangement with the proprietors of Winners Chapel to transfer the site to them for a University Project, which is what caused all the uproar.
When asked for more detail, he said, “Six villages in our community donated their lands to the church, which intends to build a university, and we freely gave out the lands because we know of the enormous benefits a university will bring to our community.”
We can’t build a university here because the church never fulfilled its pledge to return and develop the site.
We’re expected to meet with them to finalise the discussions and document any verbal assurances given to our employees.
They said they would hire a certain number of our children into the junior cadre, grant our son a seat on the university’s governing council, and provide us scholarships for our kids.
They also assured us that our team would be awarded the contract to build the fence around the perimeter.
Nweze revealed that the institution never paid them for the land but instead made a financial commitment to them; nevertheless, the amount was so small that it would not even cover the cost of closing.
He appealed to Governor Mbah, whom he praised as an attentive leader, pleading with him to help them have their attorney released and prevent their land from being encroached upon.
Dr. Shere has not responded to multiple calls and text messages left on his cell phone regarding this issue, thus further comment from him cannot be obtained at this time.
