An Anambra State-based journalist and correspondent of THISDAY Newspaper in Anambra State, Mr David-Chyddy Eleke, has raised the alarm over the alleged threat to his life by an Ebonyi State-born US citizen, Mr Ikechukwu Nkumeh.
Eleke also appealed to the commissioner of police in Ebonyi State, CP Anthonia Uche-Anya to restrain operatives of anti-kidnapping squad and SWAT from lending themselves as agents of suppression and abuse of human rights in the hands of Mr Nkumeh and his brother, Friday Nkumeh, with whom they have been tormenting the journalist and other members of his family for their refusal to surrender a portion of their family land to them.
The journalist, in a press statement he signed and made available to his colleagues in Awka, Anambra State yesterday, stated that the Nkumehs have since early December 2024 been using operatives of anti-kidnapping squad and SWAT in Abakiliki to hound, arrest and illegally detain members of his family.
He said “I hail from Oshiri in Ebonyi State, Mr Ikechukwu and his brother Friday are our neighbours in my village. Both claim to be US citizens, but the biggest torment my family has received is ever knowing them.
“Since their return from the US last year, they have been grabbing lands belonging to their neighbours in the village. They have become terror to everyone around, and I can tell you that many young people from my kindred no longer sleep in their homes because the Nkumehs have been using police to kidnap them in the dead of the night. This has been going on since after he made a petition to the anti-kidnapping squad, claiming that they wanted to kidnap him.”
The journalist continued that about three of his relatives are currently in prison and police detention facility and that he is still making many more petitions, implicating everyone in his family and sponsoring the police to pick them up.
“I now seem to be his next target, simply because I told him pointedly that the land on which he built a structure was ours.
“He has made a fresh petition against me, and I’m not sure what the allegations are, but the police have been calling to invite me, and I know that the plot is to lure me to Abakaliki so they can arrest and illegally detain me.
“In saner places, the Nkumehs would have been a blessing to us as our neighbours, but they have turned themselves into a thorn in our flesh.
“They have been spending heavily on the police, arresting and slamming our brothers with frivolous charges, just so they remand them in prison.
“Will Ikechukwu or Friday Nkumeh do this in the US, where human rights are copiously observed? They just came back and have seen how the power of money can help them subjugate us.
“We are calling on the Commissioner of police in Ebonyi, who we know is a refined officer to kindly use her good office to end this human rights violation. We have already filed a suit in a court of competent jurisdiction, so that the ownership of the piece of land in question can be determined. He should desist from using the police to arrest us, he should also release about three of our brothers who are still in detention. We are peace loving people, else we would have brought down the structure on our land, without involving the court,” the journalist said.
