Ebubeagu operatives arrest and torture former commissioner in mistaken identity blunder

EBUBEAGU Security Outfit operatives working in Ebonyi State have been accused of abducting and kidnapping local Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) leader and former information commissioner Chief Abia Onyike.

Modelled similar to the Amotekun Corps in southwest Nigeria to provide security in the southeast geo-political zone, Ebebeagu was created by the South East Governors Forum. However, the initiative does not enjoy widespread support across the southeast as for instance, the Indigenous People of Biafra (Ipob) has urged Igbo youths across not to join, Ebubeagu calling it a huge joke and a waste of time.

Ipob, which has its own armed wing called the Eastern Security Network (ESN), enjoined youths and other people in the area to distance themselves from the security outfit. Ipob spokesman Emma Powerful, said that the formation of Ebebuagu was suspicious, alluding to the fact that it may be used to sabotage ESN.

In a sure sign of the growing tension, it has been alleged that Chief Onyike, a former commissioner and one time deputy national president of the Nigerian Union of Journalists, was abducted at Octovia Pharmacy on Water Works Road, Abakaliki, where he had gone to buy some medication. While in the pharmaceutical store, two hefty armed men suspected to be Ebebeagu members walked in there, bundled him into their Sienna bus and whisked him away.

Chief Onyike, who is a spokesperson for the PDP governorship candidate in Ebonyi State Dr Ifeanyi Odii, was reportedly taken to the Ebubeagu office in Abakaliki, where he was ordered to remove his clothes and was brutally beaten up. Conforming the development, Friday Nnanna, the Ebebuagu commander in the state, said Chief Onyike’s arrest was a mistake, as he was arrested at a location where a suspect was being trailed.

Mr Nnanna added: “Immediately after his name, place of origin and personality was ascertained, he was released.  The place they said Abia was caught was where a criminal element we have been looking usually stays.

That’s where the suspect usually come to collect arms and ammunition and rifles kept for him from outside the state. You can asked the victim what we did immediately he was asked his name and where he came from. We ordered them to leave him immediately."

Narrating his ordeal, Chief Onyike said he was given over 30 slaps, while laying down naked, with planks and other weapons used to torture him. He added: “As I talk to you now, I can’t hear well with my one of my ears as I was slapped over 30 times.

"They asked me to lay down naked and beat me up severally with different dangerous objects. They even threatened to shoot me and bury me there. I can’t hear well again. They tortured me for over one hour, until some minutes to 11pm when one of them came and said I should be released, that it was a mistaken identity.”