11th December, 2019
Okafor Ofiebor/ Port Harcourt
Controversy has been stirred by an alarm raised by one Chief Emmanuel Anyina, alleging that his son, Amos Amadi, disappeared after he honoured an invitation by the Community Development Committee, CDC, Chairman of the Community, Chikwere Ogbuogor, the ONELGA Security and Peace Advisory Committee, OSPAC, Vigilante Commander, Alexander Omezuruike, to denounce cultism.
Chief Emmanuel Anyina told Journalists that his son, Amos Amadi, was on November 30, taken to OSPAC custody in Omoku, headquarters of Ogba-Egbema-Ndoni local government area but never came back.
He said since there has not been any satisfactory explanation to the whereabouts of his son, he has approached the Court for OSPAC to produce his son.
Anyina lamented that both OSPAC and the community refused to appear in court alleging that the CDC Chairman resorted to intimidating him by banishing him and his family from the community.
He is now calling on the Police and the Rivers State government to wade into the matter.
“On the 30th of November, my son was invited by OSPAC. Others have been going and were allowed to go. Why should my son go and he wouldn’t come back and they are intimidating me for taking the community to court for asking for my son? And they have banished me and family from the community.”
“They called many people to go and submit themselves to amnesty. They go, submit themselves to amnesty and are allowed to go. Why should my son’s own be different?”
However,the CDC Chairman, Chikwere Ogbuogor, denied the allegations claiming that he does not know the whereabouts of Amos Amadi, adding that Chief Emmanuel Anyina was not banished from the community but alleged that the chief’s son, Amos Amadi and others have been terrorising the community.
According to him,” Everybody is not happy with him. If we allow him the way he’s going he will destabilize the peace and security of the community. Are we going to run away from the community because of his son? We didn’t banish him, we simply told him that we won’t relate with him again as a person because he doesn’t like the community.
“Taking OSPAC to Court means he wants the court to proscribe OSPAC. We decided not to relate with him again. I am a Lawyer, I have the right to choose who I relate with”.
Meanwhile, the Rivers State Civil Society Organization has called on the state government and security agencies to wade into the matter and do the needful to ensure that justice is done.
The Chairman of the Civil Society Organization, Enefaa Georgewill, while reacting on the issue has called on the government and conventional security agencies who must not allow injustice to reign in the society.
He assured that the body will follow up with the case to its logical conclusion.
“We use this opportunity to call on the local government chairman, the Commissioner of Police and the Rivers State government by inviting the CDC Chairman and OSPAC Chairman to explain their own part of the story. We are under a government governed by the rule of law and nobody should take the laws into his hands.”
In a similar development, the Rivers Police Command has warned that no person or group has the power to illegally detain or kill another person.
Speaking on the similar alleged killings of five persons in Okomoko Community in Etche Local Government Area of Rivers, DSP Nnamdi Omoni, Police Public Relations Officer, PPRO, warned that any alleged extra-judicial killing by ONELGA Security Peace Advisory Committee, OSPAC,(Etche) or any vigilante group will be investigated and culprits prosecuted.