When Eze Cletus Elijah returned to Enugu late October to prepare for his PhD examinations at the University of Nigeria, Enugu Campus, nothing prepared him for the horror that soon unfolded. The 38-year-old, who works with an oil company in Port Harcourt, Rivers State and once served as Chief Security Officer (CSO) of his quiet Mburumbu community in Nkanu East Local Council of Enugu State, thought he could intercede to secure bail for a young villager arrested in connection with the community’s lingering Igweship tussle but got what he never expected. He found himself chained, suspended and brutalised “following my blunt refusal to implicate the Enugu State Commissioner for Science and Technology, Prince Lawrence Ezeh, as the sponsor of ‘hoodlums’ in the community.”

“It was like walking into death,” Eze recalled, his voice quivering as he narrated the ordeal just outside the Enugu State High Court on Monday, November 24, 2025, moments after obtaining a restraining order against the police.

“They wanted me to say what I didn’t do. They told me to confess that I was working for the commissioner. And if I didn’t, they would make life unpleasant for me,” he added.

Eze’s story, corroborated by nine other victims, raises concerns over alleged abuse of police power in the MburumbuIgweship tussle. The crisis, which has stretched for months, escalated sharply after a native of the community, Ozo Jerry Patrick Onuokaibe, allegedly declared himself Igwe-elect in defiance to long-standing community tradition and court orders.

A Bail Mission Turns Into Torture

Upon his return to the village, Eze had accompanied elders and youths to secure the release of a detained villager on October 30 at the Agbani Police Station. They were still concluding discussions at the police station when an officer asked him to “stay back.”

He protested, insisting he had done nothing wrong. Then came the words that marked the beginning of his ordeal: “There is an order from above,” a police officer said.

On learning this, it then dawned on him that “something was off,” but he “still didn’t think it would get to that level.”

Hours later, as night fell, operatives of the Special Weapons and Tactical Squad (SWAT) arrived. He recalled that seeing their uniforms almost brought him relief.

“I had worked with SWAT before. I knew their Commander. He even called me by my nickname, Two Face, when he saw me. That gave me hope that I was in friendly terrain,” he stated.

But the hope was quickly dashed. Eze noted that after a brief exchange with the commander, his hands were tied behind him so tightly he cried out in pain. He was then led away and subjected to what he described as a “medieval-style torture set up.”

“They took me to the back of the commander’s office. They used two handcuffs on my hands, chained my legs, tied ropes to tighten everything, and then connected an iron rod from my arms to my thighs. Two men pulled the ropes and hung me up. I stayed like that for about five hours.”

He stated that when the rope was suspended, they beat him repeatedly and demanded he reveal “where the guns are.”

“I told them I didn’t have guns. But they said I know how to shoot guns, to which I answered yes, because as a former CSO I handled pump-action guns given to our community by the government. But I resigned years ago and handed everything over,” he said.

But what followed was even more disturbing. Eze said the officers took him into what he described as a shrine inside the police facility.

“They were doing incantations and calling names. They rubbed me with fetish substances and told me to confess that I was a hoodlum sponsored by the commissioner.

“I refused and they said I would die there and nobody would know. They said they could shoot me and dispose of my body. I fainted three times. Each time they revived me, they continued beating me, tightening the ropes, demanding that I mention the commissioner,” he recounted.

Eze said the objective was clear – to force a narrative that fits a political agenda. “They wanted me to say he sent us to cause trouble over the Igweship matter. But I couldn’t lie. I would rather die.”

Another victim, Mr. Aniobi Ambrose, 68, also narrated how he was “abducted” on November 1, 2025, by armed thugs allegedly loyal to Onuokaibe.

“They double-crossed me with guns and machetes. I thought it was kidnapping,” Ambrose said.

He said he was forced into a waiting vehicle and told the police were looking for him. According to him, it was only when they handed him over to SWAT operatives that he realised the abduction was coordinated. Ambrose said what he saw at the station brought him to tears.

“I saw our boys lying on the floor undergoing torture. They took our phones; they didn’t let us eat or drink,” he said. Pointing to Eze, Ambrose added: “I saw this young man in a condition that broke my heart.”

Ambrose said the community had long known the chieftaincy matter was delicate, but he never imagined it would reach the level of brutality.

Origin of the chieftaincy crisis

The Guardian gathered that the chieftaincy crisis is rooted in the community’s 2003 constitution, which clearly spells out the rotational journey of the throne and bars certain families, including the Igwe’s own children, from contesting.

It was learnt that in January 2025, the state High Court in Amagunze delivered a judgment in Suit No. HAMA/1/2024, disqualifying Onuokaibe from contesting.

Also, in October 2025, another court ruling in Suit HAMA/24/2025 restrained him from holding a new yam festival or parading himself as Igwe-elect.

Many people conversant with the issue revealed that trouble started when Onuokaibe allegedly went ahead to print invitation cards and hold the festival, insisting that no other village could celebrate theirs until he had concluded his own.

“Youths protested because it was against the court order and our custom. But after it all died down, he (Onuokaibe) started using the police to arrest people,” Ambrose explained.

He alleged that about 70 community members had been told to report to the SWAT office or face arrest.

“People are afraid to sleep at home. We were detained for almost three weeks. And after the torture, after everything, the same man behind it all, Onuokaibe, came to SWAT office and took us to his house. He made us call him ‘Igwe’ before we were released.”

To them, this was evidence the police knew they had done nothing wrong.

“How can the complainant become the surety?” Ambrose asked. “It shows they realised that no crime was committed.”

Meanwhile, on Monday, November 24, 2055, the Enugu State High Court intervened in the matter following a suit by counsel to the suspects, Ike Ozor, seeking a restraining order against further arrest of his clients by the police. Ozor had told the court that “what had happened was persecution engineered by a man trying to force himself onto a throne the law had ruled him unfit to occupy.”

Justice C. O. Ajah, after listening to his submission, agreed that the rights of the suspects were in jeopardy and issued a restraining order stopping the police, SWAT Commander, CSP Anosike Nduwuisi and IPO Emmanuel Uchenna Ogazi, from further arrests, harassment or intimidation of the suspects.

But even with the court order, Eze expressed fear that the matter was not over and called on Governor Peter Mbah to intervene. Describing the governor as a peace-loving man, he insisted that he was unaware of the depth of the crisis in his own local council.

“Some people are blocking the truth from getting to him. If he knew what SWAT is doing, what they did to us, he would act,” Eze said.

To him, the crisis is no longer a mere community dispute but now a threat to the lives of innocent people.

“If someone less strong than me had passed through that torture, he would have died,” he said. “They told us they could kill us and nothing would happen.”

Police Mum As Onuokaibe Justifies Arrest, Detention

When contacted to react to the allegations of torture levelled against the police by the suspects, the State Police Public Relations Officer, Daniel Ndukwe, promised to “get back on the issue” but did not after one week.

When The Guardian reached him again last Wednesday to remind him that his reaction to the allegation was still being awaited, he still promised to revert, saying he was in a noisy place; but failed to do so before the filing of this report.

However, Onuokaibe confirmed that he authored the petition to the Commissioner of Police that elicited the arrest and detention of 10 youths from his village.

He said the petition followed acts of “malicious damage, threat to life and conduct likely to cause breach of public peace and communal war.”

The petition, dated November 3, was written by his counsel, P.O. Okonkwo. It narrated that Onuokaibe was in his country home in Mburumbu briefing his community about a court order that had restrained him from performing the new yam festival slated for October 31 when the suspects and their cohorts, while chanting war songs, attacked “him and other members of the community with gun, cutlass, axe and dangerous weapons.”

He told The Guardian that as a result of the attack, many community members sustained injuries and were treated in hospitals, alleging that the suspects damaged properties belonging to him and members of the community.

He said the petition to the Commissioner of Police called for an investigation of the act to avoid breakdown of law and order.

Onuokaibe further said that he decided to cause the bail of the suspects from custody as a way of restoring peace in the community, stressing that he also, “fed them all through their stay at the police, as well as bought food for them on the day they were released, bought them fresh cloths and gave them transport money to return home.”

“They also prayed for me in my house. It is unfortunate that the same people I helped have turned back to institute a court action against me and told the court all manner of lies. I know they are being instigated to lie against me,” he added. (Guardian)

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