Members of Idima Abam rural community in Arochukwu Local Council in Abia State, yesterday, protested against the arrest and detention of their leader, Ezeogo Chukwu Jonah.

Jonah was arrested at a security checkpoint in Ntigha, along Aba/Umuahia Expressway, on Wednesday, November 19, 2025, while returning from Aba, and detained in Abuja.

The community members trooped out in their numbers with placards protesting.

Speaking to newsmen, President-General (PG) of Idima Abam, Patrick Dike, said Jonah’s arrest was ordered by the Force Headquarters (FHQ) following a petition lodged by an influential member of the community.

He said the community, last week, petitioned the state government through their representative, the Majority Leader of the House of Assembly.

Some of their placards read ‘Release our Ezeogo, Chukwu Jonah’, ‘Ezeogo is our Liberator, Leave him alone’, ‘DIG FCID should obey the IGP Directive’, ‘Holding our Ezeogo (King) is just incarcerating the whole community’, ‘Governor Alex Otti, please help Idima Abam Community’, ‘Let the Police stop harassing and intimidating innocent community members’.

Wife of the detainee, Mrs Mary Chukwu Jonah, confirmed that her husband was arrested at Ntigha between 2.00pm and 3.00pm by the police, taken to Life Camp Abuja Police facility. She stressed that her husband called her with a borrowed phone to inform her that he was arrested and taken to Abuja.

Mrs Jonah said: “I was asked to say that my husband died in an accident, but I refused to say so.”

The community members, who spoke in turns, corroborated that there had been killings in the community by a group that had been banned in the community.

The PG stated that there had been leadership/kingship tussle between two families that traditionally produce the traditional ruler of the community.

According to him, each of them has laid claim to the vacant stool.

The Guardian gathered that between 2017 and 2019, a group allegedly murdered four members of the Idima Abam community.

These murdered victims, community sources added, were poor villagers who left behind widows and children.

“It has been difficult to bring the murderers to justice because of the backing of their wealthy patrons. Specifically, on October 21, 2022, a group of Idima Abam indigenes led by Chukwu Jonah petitioned the DIG FCID, Abuja, over the murders and other human rights violations.

“After repeated back and forth, the petition was eventually transferred to the FCID, Enugu, for investigation. The men sent to investigate the crime never visited any of the deceased family members. Rather, when they came to the village, they hobnobbed with the suspects and their sponsor and left. They eventually did a report to their superiors in Abuja that the principal petitioner, Chukwu Jonah, gave the police false information,” the PG stated.

It was on the basis of this report, The Guardian gathered, that Chukwu is being detained in Life Camp police station without access to family members and food.

The police have yet to respond at press time, as calls put across to the spokesperson for the Abia State Police Command were not responded to.