Justice For Eneh Victor Chigozie

ARINZE IGBOELI

Eneh Victor Chigozie is a prominent blogger and social media influencer in the SouthEast part of the country. A gadfly, Eneh has repeatedly been a thorn in the flesh of several political big wigs, exposing shady political practices as well as advocating for good governance for the zone.

Owing to the democratisation of the news sphere, a dangling consequence of the upsurge of social media, Eneh’s page on Facebook is a meeting place for the latest servings of political news, squawks, shrieks and even whimpers behind our political scenes.

An undaunted crusader, Eneh has never been afraid on taking on the big wigs in the SouthEast and treads where the ‘strong’ shy away from, little wonder he is a readers delight and even those he criticises sometimes agree with his punting as well as admire his courage and consistency.

Unfortunately, Eneh was last week kidnapped under the pretext of an arrest by policemen in Enugu and forcefully taken to one Chinedu Obidigwe’s house, where he was beaten and humiliated for hours before he was moved qto the State CID and charged for defamation of character!

Eneh had in several articles alleged that this particular Chinedu Obidigwe, who had served as SSA on Political Affairs to Governor Willie Obiano in the latter’s first tenure was not qualified to vie for the Anambra East/West House of Representatives seat, owing to a number of fluorescent discrepancies in his documentation filed with the electoral body. For example, according to Eneh, the documents tendered by Obidigwe were at variance with one another; while his WAEC had his Year of Birth as 1981, a sworn affidavit submitted to the same INEC captured his year of birth as 1979. Eneh had also gone on to allege that Obidigwe’s claim to graduating from the Ebonyi State University was false as there were no records to show that he had graduated from the school, even though he had stated it as part of his educational qualifications.

Eneh may have been right in his allegations, he may also have been wrong and I will not hold forth for him, sadly this Chinedu Obidigwe, like a medieval baron thinking that Anambra State is his fiefdom, got some policemen to head to Enugu and kidnap Eneh Victor under the pretext of an arrest, these officers then drove Eneh in the dead of the night to Obidigwe’s apartment as alleged by Eneh where he was beaten up and humiliated ( Eneh alleges that Obidigwe poured drinks on him while he was beating him up before he was handed over to the State CID).

This enraged a number of notable personalities in Anambra State, who angered by this brazen act of devilment intervened to get Eneh out of detention. I must commend the likes of Chief Bonaventure Mokwe, Hon Tony Nwoye, Ifeanyi Ubah and Senator Stella Oduah for the various yeoman roles they played in getting Eneh out of detention. Also, the act enraged a number of social media practitioners like myself, who have not questioned Obidigwe’s right to be aggrieved but the repulsively grotesque manner in which he has sought to channel such grievances. I mean, Obidigwe could have gone to court to seek redress if he felt that his rights as a citizen had been infringed upon, rather than forcefully arrest Eneh as if we are a Gestapo State. Thus, these men and women have taken up the gauntlet for Eneh who they see as one of their own, for today it is Eneh who is presently recuperating in a hospital in Abuja after his release, tomorrow it may be one of us; signalling the death of free speech, as such an act may now serve as a precedent, who knows? Perhaps,tomorrow, another fellow, emboldened by such might attempt a kidnap or a Kashoogi styled murder!

I therefore lend my voice to the calls for justice for Eneh Victor, I call on the Presidency, the Nigerian Police Force and other security agencies as well as human rights groups and other well meaning Nigerians to ensure that justice is done in this affair, for it seems that Chinedu Obidigwe seeks to return Anambra to its bloody past, where thuggery is elevated while reason and civility is knuckled down!
#JusticeForEneh