The family of Chikaodili and Friday Nworie are presently in tears over their two sons who were arrested since January 2021 over the bloody Ezza-Effium communal crisis in Ohaukwu Local Government Area of Ebonyi State.
The two brothers from Ezza North Local Government Area of the State were said to be doing business in the crisis-torn area and were picked up during a mass arrest as the crisis heated up and remanded at the Abakaliki Correctional Centre.
A family source told SaharaReporters that “They are being accused of being Ezza warlords who are disturbing the community and upon their arrest, they were taken to Abakaliki prison and they are still there.”
According to the family member, they were arrested as they were trying to flee the war zone during the inception of the crisis, but since their arrest and remand in prison, each time they were taken to court, either the judge would not be around or their case would be adjourned to a new date.
He said, “They are not mercenaries neither were they engaging in the war. They are not the only innocent people being detained. They are in hundreds incarcerated in Abakaliki prison. Since they were arrested, their parents have spent all they have trying to get lawyers that will stand for them but no lawyer has been able to get them released.
“From what one of them told me when I visited them, he said the state governor said he will not release them until the crisis stops. The government has only been taking them to court, bringing them back to prison and telling one story or the other. Now, the government is no longer talking about them again.
“They contacted another lawyer but that one disappeared with the money he was paid. He did not even go to court for the case. All efforts to get them released have proved abortive. There is no hope of any day they will be released.”
“Those boys were not part of the case. They are innocent. They were only doing business in that area. They are from Ezza North Local Government Area, not from Ohaukwu. They did not do anything. They were not involved in the communal crisis. They are from a different local government area entirely,” the family member lamented.