Enugu community demands release of vigilantes arrested as IPOB members

The Ajame Ameze community, Akpawfu in Nkanu East Local Council of Enugu State, has demanded the release of six incarcerated members of its vigilante group.

The members were allegedly arrested by the police for murder and membership of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB).

However, the community demanded their release, insisting that they were being unjustly held for crimes they did not commit.

Last Thursday, the police arraigned six members of the Neighborhood Watch (three from Ajame Akpawfu and three from other parts of the Akpawfu community arrested by the Octopus Tactical Squad of the command) for the offences of membership of the IPOB/ESN group, terrorism, murder, and armed robbery.

They were arraigned in a Magistrate’s Court and remanded in the Nigerian Correctional Custodial Centre, pending further trial.

The spokesperson for the police in the state, Daniel Ndukwe, stated that the suspects confessed to the gruesome murder of two individuals and a series of armed robberies in the Akpawfu community and environs.

But, addressing a news conference in Enugu, the community insisted that the arrested persons were innocent of the allegations against them, stressing that they were never members of IPOB as claimed by the police.

The traditional ruler of the community, Igwe Christopher Nnamani, who addressed reporters on behalf of the community, maintained that the people arrested were persons of integrity.

An attribute which was considered before appointing them as members of the community’s vigilante operatives.

He also noted that the detained persons had no hand in the killing of the two villagers, adding that the community had made inroads into getting to the root of the murder “before the police began arresting people.”

He said the police had, at a general meeting of the community, given the people a list of those on their wanted list, adding that none of the arrested persons was part of those they listed.

Nnamani said: “Let them release our security operatives. These are the people who saved our community from unknown gunmen during the period our community was in turmoil. Soldiers from the 82 Division of the Nigerian Army can attest to their innocence.”

Therefore, he called on the Enugu State government to look into the matter and release the people he said had suffered over what they knew nothing about in the last month.